Rescue Number 301
by AmyDonovan525
Summary: Set in the Pokeumans universe. On the day of my 10th birthday, I become a Jigglypuff! A Golurk named Darren rescues me from bad guys and introduces me to a hidden world of other human-turned-Pokemon, of happiness and sadness, as I try to find my dream...
1. A World I Never Knew

**Chapter 1: A World I Never Knew**

It happened on the day of my 10th birthday.

Obviously, I didn't notice right away. I'd never been the type to look that closely in mirrors, anyway. For instance, I only brushed my hair to the extent that the front looked good, mostly because the bathrooms in my house never had enough mirrors to allow me to see the back of my head. I figured, if I couldn't see it, what was so important about it? It drove my mom nuts, I tell you. But that's not the point. The point was that something happened that day that made me stare in the mirror longer and more intensely than I ever did before.

"What the…?" I touched what looked like an extra pair of ears that sprouted through my hair on top of my head. It looked like a pair of pink cat ears vaguely the shape of a Jigglypuff's…and for that matter, when did I suddenly grow pink bangs in front of my forehead? My hair was always parted in the middle; my mom thought it was a good hairstyle for me, and like a lot of things back then, I went along with it.

Did any of the boys from the neighborhood that I invited over for my party notice? It's not like any of them were into fashion or anything, but…the pink ears and bangs would've stood out so much from my brown hair that it would be hard for anyone to miss. If not, then how could they have sprung up that recently? And how could I not feel…? I touched an ear. WHOA! I could feel my finger through the ear!

I knew I expected my 10th birthday to be major. It my first entrance into the world of ages with double-digits; it was the age where I would've become a Pokémon Trainer (if only I lived in the Pokémon world instead of this boring real world); etc. My parents recorded everything on videotape, from when I first woke up to when the first of my friends arrived to the Jigglypuff-shaped cake to the present-opening ceremony to the movies we watched to the Super Smash Bros. games we played and everything in between. But…this? Was this some sort of extra present my mom and dad weren't telling me about? Was this because I was even more obsessed with Jigglypuff than usual today?

Or maybe…just maybe…I really WAS turning into a Jigglypuff! My most favorite Pokémon ever since I was introduced to it the summer before 2nd grade!

After hurriedly brushing my teeth, I ran to my room, closed the door as fast as I could, and leaped up on the bed. What did this mean? Me…turning into a Pokémon? I thought I was supposed to be a Trainer, and my first Pokémon would be Jigglypuff. On the other hand, I remembered that I would often pretend to be Jigglypuff while the neighborhood boys would be other Super Smash Bros. characters when we played around outside until it got dark, when our parents would call us in, and often, we'd complain that it was still light outside. Anyway, I had no idea if this was the extent of the transformation or if it went further. Hmm…a Jigglypuff…

I had to test it out. I sang, "Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear Amy, Happy Birthday to me..." I paused, shocked. My pitch was perfect. In fact, my voice was so perfect, I was feeling tired. Tired? Uh-oh. I thought that if I became a Jigglypuff I'd be the first to sing without anyone falling asleep. Now I knew how Ash and friends felt.

"Amy?" It was my mom.

"Can we come in?" And my dad.

I wasn't really sure if I should show them my Jigglypuff ears or not. Well, considering how I now had FOUR ears, it would probably shock them, even if I claimed it was a new hat. After all, it looked and felt real, with a thin layer of soft, fine fur I never knew Jigglypuffs had. So I got under the covers, grabbed an extra pillow, and placed it over my head. "Yeah, it's okay!" I said.

They did. "That was some great singing just now," said Dad.

"Uh…yeah! I was practicing to see what it was like to be a Jigglypuff. You know…"

Mom laughed. "That is so you. Nice to see you're in bed early, too. It's only 8:30."

Gulp. Bedtime for me was usually 9:00 pm, but I was known for staying up later than that when I was excited by something like my birthday, or whenever I wanted to play as much of my video games as possible. "That's right!" I replied. "Looks like I've also sang myself to sleep, huh?"

They smiled. "Well, goodnight, Amy!" said Dad. Then they left the room and closed the door.

Whew! Safe. They didn't even notice the extra pillow on my head.

But I decided to try and fall asleep right then and there, anyway. Maybe in the morning, the ears would go away. And even if they didn't, at least the morning would be a better time to show them.

* * *

><p>I woke up in the middle of the night to a cloud of purplish black mist being blasted in my face.<p>

"Ack! What—?" I choked and lashed out, trying to make whoever was blasting me go away. How did a stranger get into my room? In fact, how did a stranger get into my HOUSE? For my efforts, I only had more mist sprayed into my face. It must have been some sort of sleeping gas, because right then, my eyes slammed shut despite my efforts and I was out like a light.

* * *

><p>"Uugh…"<p>

My head swam, and I nearly choked up a mass of acidic bile. The sting of acid still burned in my throat, though.

Finally, I blinked my eyes open, only to be met by the harshness of a bright white light. Ow, my eyes! Eventually, though, they finally became used to it. I found I was staring at a pointy object right in front of my face. I could feel and hear it humming with what looked like bright-blue heat energy inside of it.

Instinctly, I tried backing away, only to realize that my waist, arms, throat, and eyes were restrained by cold, thick metal clamps. To make matters worse, there were jet-black wires attached all over me, most of them poking through my long-sleeved PJs. I found I was strapped to a glisteningly white table, and my eyes quickly scanned the room. There wasn't much to see other than blank whitewashed walls, a single door, a few computers, and some sort of console that appeared to be connected to the pointy thing. I didn't understand. Was I in some sort of mad scientist's lab? Or maybe…maybe an alien spaceship beamed me up to perform some sort of experiment on me?

The door opened, and two people dressed in thickly covered biohazard suits came in, with gas masks strapped over their faces for a seriously creepy effect. At least, I thought they were people; for all I knew, maybe they were human-shaped aliens.

I couldn't take this freakiness anymore. I shouted, "Who are you guys? What's going on?"

One of them replied with contempt, "Save your breath. You're one of THEM." The gas mask garbled his voice.

Okay, so either people, or aliens who happened to speak English. "Wait. What? Them? Who's them?" I shouted.

As one of them typed in some commands on the console, the other pointed in the general direction of my head and shot, "Well, what do you think?"

My Jigglypuff ears. Wait…But how? I covered my ears and never let anyone see them, didn't I? Then again, I still had no idea when they sprouted up. But I didn't think one of my friends would sell me out to…whoever THESE guys were…just because of that! Some sort of tracking device? Yeah, that had to be it. But how was I going to get out of here? When would my parents notice I was missing and send for help?

Then the pointy thing moved, and I nearly yelped. This was way worse than the dentist's office, and that was already very bad, especially with the plaque removal! Was I going to die here?

"Oh, don't worry, kid…This won't hurt a bit," sneered the other one in a tone of voice that suggested that it would actually be more painful than I could possibly imagine.

Suddenly, the ground heaved, and the wall to my right exploded. The scary masked people shouted, "Hey! What the—?"

A dark purple shadowy aura in the shape of a fist pummeled them both. Then several more of them smashed into the clamps and wires, popping them all off and freeing me. As I got up and leapt off the table to duck behind it as a shield from the maelstrom, the source of it all crashed into the room and landed right in front of me.

It was…a robot from the Disney movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Well, not exactly. It stood at 9'2", at least twice my height if not bigger. It was an aquamarine blue, just like the architecture in the movie. There were yellow angled swirly patterns on its hands and shoulders, the same patterns as the ones in the movie. The main difference was the brown bands around its hands and feet and the brown seal on its chest. To my surprise, it—I mean, he—talked! "Kid, I'm here to help! Hurry, grab on!"

I just sat there on the ground, staring up at him in shock. Maybe HE was the alien. Wait…but then that would mean the people—or maybe humanoid aliens—were the bad guys and this robot guy was the good guy. How did THAT work out?

"We don't have time! Come ON!" Without warning, he scooped me up and nearly flattened me against his chest. At the same time, he leapt up and flew out through the hole he made in the wall, forcing me to grab hold as best as I could. I couldn't help but let out a shout at all this, plus the sudden rush of cool air streaking down my shoulders.

As he dragged me up into the night sky, I managed to sneak a quick look from where we emerged from. It turned out there was this giant facility place in the middle of a wooded area. It shrunk rapidly as we flew higher into the sky like some sort of airplane, only without the seatbelts or the shielding from the wind, and I kept on shouting and shouting (I wouldn't say "screaming" since my voice wasn't THAT high-pitched). I was freaking out! How was I supposed to control myself when we were, like, a mile high in the air and if this guy dropped me I'd be dead meat?

I don't know how long I would've shrieked like that if he didn't interrupt me by saying, "Sorry about that, kid. Look, I know it must be seriously freaky to be turning into a Jigglypuff, getting nearly skewered by those guys, AND end up being carried through the sky by some Golurk who until today you never knew actually existed. I know. I've been there before."

I paused in surprise. "Some what?"

"A Golurk. You don't know what a Golurk is?"

"N—no…Is that some kind of alien? I thought you were one of those robots from Atlantis."

He nearly laughed, and I held on even tighter and shrieked, holding on for dear life. "Whoa, watch it! Don't pull my seal off, or else my internal energy's gonna explode all over you."

Terrified, I tried to hold on to the area around his neck…what little of it there was, anyway.

"I'm a kind of Pokémon. Don't you know what a Pokémon is?"

This time I gasped, "Whoa! So you're a NEW one? I thought there were only 251."

He nearly laughed again, but this time, recovered a lot faster. "Oh, I gotcha. You've only played up to the 2nd generation. Well, we're both known as Pokéumans."

I tested it out. "Pokéumans?" It was really hard to pronounce. "So we're both half-human and half-Pokémon?" I couldn't see how he was half-human; he looked all-Pokémon to me.

"Not exactly. We're humans who've turned into Pokémon. You're turning into a Jigglypuff, aren't you? And those guys I helped you get away from—they're an evil organization called Pokéxtinction. They're out to kill every one of us."

"Pokéxtinction…" That was even harder to pronounce.

"Kid, it's okay. You can cool it with those one-word responses." He sighed. "Look, I'm sorry if this all seems like a shock. It was for me too. But don't worry. I'm a trained pro. In fact, when I get you to the base, it'll be Rescue Number 301 for me. I'll finally get to become an Honorary Elite." He looked off into the distance and sighed in awe.

I was beyond confused. "Wait, what? What base? What are you talking about?" I asked.

"There's a base where we take people like you. Don't worry. Normal people don't know it's there. You'll be okay." He looked back down to me. "Whoops! Forgot to introduce myself. My name's Darren."

"I'm Amy," I said.

"Huh…It's not often that little kids like you transform this early. How old ARE you, anyway?"

"Nine—oh wait, my 10th birthday was yesterday."

"Ten…Wow, I'm sorry, kid. Most people transform in their teens. Heck, it didn't happen to me until I was 17. Now I'm 23. Heh. I knew it was more than me working on too many robotics projects."

I shivered. The cold air and the moisture from the clouds we were flying through were starting to get to me.

"Oh wait, I forgot! Gimme a sec…"

The dull yellow line streaking across his stomach suddenly glowed brightly, and the surrounding air became much warmer, drying off the moisture around us. "Thanks…" I said. "How long will it take to get there?"

"I can get there a lot faster, but you'll have to hold on tight."

I nodded and did so. "All right, here we go!" said Darren.

He sped up so quickly that I could barely make out the clouds as they sped by. That is, for the fraction of the second that my eyes were open. The rest of the time I squeezed my eyes shut and held on for dear life. I know he was helping with those large hands of his, but I couldn't be too careful.

Finally, though, it was over. We descended from the clouds, and I finally opened my eyes. I looked down to see…the Statue of Liberty?

"What? We're in New York? Why…?" I was speechless. We were a LONG way from northern Virginia now. A long way from home. Of course, I still had no idea where that Pokéxtinction base was compared to home.

"Yeah, forgot to tell you…the base is in Long Island," he muttered, almost sheepishly.

"Long Island, huh? My cousins are there. I wonder if we'll pass by their house…"

Of course, I had no idea if we ever did pass by their house or not. He landed in the middle of yet another forest far from the suburbs of civilization. For a big, Atlantis-like robot guy, I was surprised at how gently he put me down on the grou—

"Wait!" I shouted.

"What?"

"I only have my socks on! I can't get them dirty…" Well, the ground was muddy. What did you expect?

"Heh, that's okay. I can do this with one hand." To prove his point, he pushed a giant rock aside to reveal a huge hidden trapdoor of some sort. Then he knelt down and pressed a certain sequence of buttons on it, which lit up whenever he pressed one. Then the trapdoor opened, and he stepped in while still holding me.

"It looks like the floor's okay here…" I said. The floor was a smooth, clean, crystal-like surface, nothing like the mud-filled muck up above.

He put me down and closed the trapdoor that was now in the ceiling, making sure it was locked. Then he strode over to a console on the wall and typed in a few commands. Judging from what appeared on the monitor, it looked like the rock was moving back into place.

Finally, I could calm down my hammering heart and relax. "Now what?" I asked.

"I take all new Pokéumans to Headmistress Asula's office, where she will explain everything. Follow me."

We walked along the crystal-line corridors that were almost like a maze, completely silent. Finally, though, I remembered what I wanted to say. "…Darren?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for saving me back there. Honestly."

He smiled (okay, he didn't really have a mouth, but by the way his eyes lit up, I assumed he was). "Just doing my job, Amy. Just doing my job."

He opened a door at the end of the hallway and had one last thing for me to say. "Welcome to the world of the Pokéumans."

I looked out the door into an even brighter hallway and gasped when I saw what was through the clear glass in front of me. I ran up to the glass. The hallway we were standing in circled around the room I looked down into, and through it, I could see a crowded lunchroom.

There were Pokémon of all shapes and sizes. Many of them were kinds I'd never seen before. I've heard of certain Pokémon like Kecleon and Azurill as part of the so-called "3rd generation", but what was before me represented at least 5, 6, maybe even 10 generations, for all I knew. It was sort of like the lunchroom at my elementary school, but much, much bigger and with many, many more lunch lines and options for food. And if what Darren said was true, all of the Pokémon here were once humans like me.

It looked like there was a whole other world that I never knew underneath my nose the whole time. And very soon, I would join it as my most favorite Pokémon ever.

**To be continued…**


	2. The Best Birthday Ever

**Chapter 2: The Best Birthday Ever**

"…How big IS this base, anyway?" I asked, dumbstruck.

"Mmm…it comprises the entire underground area of Long Island, certainly enough to allow more Pokéumans to come in for another few decades or so." Darren then cleared his throat and tapped me on the shoulder. "This way."

"Is it okay if I'm in PJs?" I asked, worried.

He chuckled. "Amy, this is **Pokémon.** Does it look like it would matter?"

Apparently, it didn't. I followed the Golurk down several more halls, passing various Pokémon with notebooks and pencils, almost as if they were at school. Darren waved and said hi to lots of them. It looked like he was popular here, or at least very well known.

"Yo, Darren!" greeted one I could finally recognize. He was a Dragonite. "Is that your…?"

"Rescue Number 301. Honorary Elite." Darren gestured to me proudly. I remembered that I heard him say something about that before…

"Whoa, good job, man! Gotta get going. See ya!" The Dragonite hurried along.

"Believe it or not, there's a lot more of them in the daytime. Most of them are already asleep. These guys are allowed to take night classes. Most of them have Insomnia," explained Darren.

By this time, we went down a giant staircase and got as far as what he explained was the main hall. He led me to a door that made me just stand there in place. The door was decorated with a stain glass picture of a whole lot of Pokémon, many of whom I didn't recognize at all. "Amyyyy…" Darren waved a giant blue metal hand in front of my face, making me jump. "You there?" He then gestured to the golden doorknobs in the shape of Poké Balls.

"Aww, man…" I complained.

He laughed. "Don't worry! You'll have as much time as you want to look at them later. For now, I'll have to introduce you to the headmistress."

He knocked on the door and announced, "Ma'am? It's Darren. I brought someone." To my surprise, the doors swung open by themselves despite having doorknobs.

"Please come in. Both of you," said a soft, soothing voice.

We did so and entered an office-like rooms made of crystal, like all the walls of the base. It had a main desk, a tank of water behind it, a few velvet chairs in front of the desk, and a few other random things. Sitting behind the desk was a long, slender, beautiful fish-lady (I later learned she was a Milotic) with a pair of robotic arms attached to a ring around…well, where a pair of arms would naturally be.

"Greetings. My name is Asula, and I am the headmistress of the Pokeumans' Long Island base. What's your name?" she asked.

"Amy?"

"Oh! Please, sit down in one of those chairs. Would you like anything to drink?"

I sat down in the velvet chair in the middle. "Just water, please."

As I took the cup Asula filled with water from a water cooler to my right, I noticed that Darren remained standing. I wasn't sure if it was because the chairs were too small or if he was used to standing up. As if he read my mind, Darren explained, "It's okay, Amy. It's actually easier for me to stand up."

"Allow me to explain everything," said Asula.

She used one of her robotic arms to press a button on her desk, and a flat TV screen of some sort descended from the ceiling in front of me. "I used to explain all this in person to those who've come before you, but repetition gets tiresome after a while. I hope you'll understand."

Darren dimmed the lights in the room as the TV turned on and started playing the video.

Apparently, Pokémon existed after the dinosaurs but before humans. Problem was, the humans tried to enslave them or something, and there was a war, and they couldn't stand it anymore, so all the Pokémon left for an alternate dimension and erased ALL traces of their existence, from their fossils to the humans' memories, leaving nothing behind. It would have remained that way if it wasn't for an event 100 years ago. Some mad scientist named Mr. X had managed to find a trace of Mew's DNA in South America and tried to bring it to life, but failed miserably, causing an explosion that scattered some sort of invisible cloud all over the world. The cloud started turning certain people into Pokémon, and since it was Mew's DNA, they could turn into absolutely any Pokémon (except the Legendaries) at any time. It was completely random. Mr. X, who was turned into a Mewtwo, got ticked off and created an evil organization called Pokéxtinction. Its members would take ordinary jobs and be on the lookout for Pokéumans who were about to transform. As soon as one was spotted, they would kidnap the person, genetically fix them, and kill them. They would also alter the memories of anyone who happened to see the person transforming. As it turned out, Mew stayed behind and saw what was happening. He started the Pokéumans organization, comprised of thousands of bases all over the world, to rescue these people, give them a new life, and eventually, fight back against Pokéxtinction. In fact, one of the main reasons the entire Pokémon franchise was "invented" was to let people be aware of Pokémon so that they wouldn't be too freaked out if they started turning into one.

Actually, that explanation can't do proper justice to how I really felt. The visuals were filled with examples of all this happening, like a documentary and live newscast combined, all narrated by a voice recording of Asula. By the time the movie finished, I was shaking in horror.

Darren turned the lights back on as the TV screen retracted into the ceiling. Asula looked like she had fallen asleep, but perked up instantly. "So you see, that is the true state of our world," she concluded calmly.

"I don't get it…" I mumbled numbly. "Pokémon and people CAN'T get along? Like in the TV show, and the games, and…?"

"That is correct."

"What about my mom and dad? Aren't they going to notice that—?"

"Ah, yes. I forgot to mention. After they captured you, Pokéxtinction created a clone of you with all your memories to take your place. Your parents will, unfortunately, never notice the difference."

"A clone…of me…" I could hardly believe it. That clone would live out the rest of my—

"Wait, does that mean…?"

"I'm afraid so. You can never go back home, or else you'll risk being captured and killed again."

I hung my head as I tried to think about what this all meant. I just turned 10, and always imagined that I would become a Pokémon Trainer just like Ash Ketchum, but to turn into a real Pokémon? And have all this happen to me as a result? And I couldn't leave? This was huge!

"You appear to be turning into a Jigglypuff," said Asula.

I knew that, of course. "How long will it take?"

Darren spoke up for the first time in a while. Obviously, he was still standing. "About one week, just like for everyone else…except for Riolus and Lucarios, of course."

"Except for what and what?"

"Never mind…" he muttered.

Asula then picked up a thick book of some sort, as well as a sheet of paper, and handed it to me. Looked like her robotic arms stretched a long way. "What's this?" I asked.

"Reference information. In case you forget anything about Pokémon," she answered.

Darren added, "And since you've only played up to 2nd gen, this will teach you all you need to know about the 3rd, 4th, and 5th gens, including abilities, double battle, triple battles…Wow, you really missed out on a lot."

My jaw dropped. "TRIPLE battles?"

They both laughed.

After they calmed down, I finally asked, "So what happens to me now?"

Asula explained, "You will live here, just like Darren and everyone else who was rescued. You will take academic classes, gym class, battle class…but you also have many more options than those. When you think about it, it's almost like high school.

My jaw dropped again. "High school?" I shouted. "But I'm only in 4th grade!"

"As I said earlier, people can transform at many age, though it's mostly concentrated in the teenage years for some reason. I'm sure your classes won't be too difficult for you to keep up," Asula assured me. "Now, Darren, could you be a dear and take Amy to her room? It's the middle of the night, after all. We ALL need some sleep now."

"Yes ma'am!" He saluted. I stood up and followed him out the door.

In the hallways, Darren stole a quick peek at the slip of paper on top of the book I was carrying. "Apparently, you're in Room 301 with Eric the Sableye and Cole the Bayleef. Heh. 301."

I noticed. "Yeah, what's WITH all this 301 business?"

"Well, Amy, I'm a member of the Pokéuman Rescue Troop, or as we call it, the PRT. We're the ones who rescue people like you. There are loads of ranks, with the highest one being Honorary Elite, and in order to reach it, we have to complete over 300 missions. Once we complete our 301st mission—in my case, rescuing you—we attain that rank and are qualified to take ANY mission we want. Plus, we get loads of respect. Takes years to complete that many missions. For me, it was 5 years."

We walked along several corridors and soon came to a series of hallways with numbers on the doors, but it looked like 301 was a long way away, so I asked, "Darren, when did you notice yourself turning into…an Atlantis robot—"

"Golurk," he corrected me. "Like I said, I was hard at work on a robotics project for my high school's science fair. This one way was better than anything else I'd ever done, and would've looked awesome on my college applications. I'd completed the poster board and was presenting it to the judges when I noticed the back of my hands had these symbols on them. Then the judges gave the usual, 'You're one of them' line, knocked me out, and next thing I knew, I was strapped inside a truck when this Grovyle came in to bust me out. His name's Reggie, by the way. You might see him around."

It was really hard for me to follow. College applications? Grovyle? What? But I said, "Gotcha," just to be polite, and besides, at least I understood most of it.

"Well, we're here!" Darren gestured at the dark blue crystal door in front of me labeled 301. He opened the door to a room with all the lights out, but the light from the hallway allowed me to see that it was a room with two bunk beds, one to my left and one to my right. In the middle was a crystal table with a flat-screen TV and a computer. Beyond it, I could barely make out a writing desk of some sort, as well as some drawers behind the bunk beds. On the left bed was a Pokémon I recognized, a Bayleef. The one on the right was a purple guy with gemstones for eyes. They both looked older than me. They were asleep on the bottom bunks, and I placed my hands over my mouth before I could accidentally wake them up. But Darren had other ideas.

He turned on the light and announced, "Cole! Eric! Wake up. You have a new roommate."

They both did; in fact, the Bayleef nearly hit the roof of his bunk. "DARREN!" he shouted, all annoyed. "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? WHAT ROOMMATE?"

The purple guy shouted, "My eyes! MY EYES!"

Darren strode over to the Bayleef and said, "The big idea is that I'll be Mr. Honorary Elite as soon as I get her in here, so show some respect, Cole."

The Bayleef, whose name was apparently Cole (which would make the other guy Eric) cleared his eyes and finally noticed me. "Oh! Sorry, kid. Welcome to Room 301. Name's Cole. What's your's?"

"Amy. Which bed should I take?"

"Oh, either one will do. But could you make it quick? Eric hates too much light, and frankly, I would rather not mess up my sleep, either, especially on a Friday night. Had a really cool dream for a moment there."

I looked back and forth at the two of them, and then figured that I knew the Bayleef better than the other guy, so I placed my book and paper on the table, climbed up the ladder, and plopped into bed, dragging the covers over myself. It was quite convenient that I was still wearing PJs. Darren was about to leave through the door when he said, "Oh yeah, Amy? Tomorrow's a Saturday. These guys can show you around, but when Monday comes, you've got classes."

"Classes?" I tried to look at the piece of paper with what looked like a schedule written on it, but Darren turned off the lights.

"And don't worry about being half-human. Like I said, you'll be 100% Jigglypuff by next week. See you around!" With that, he closed the door, leaving us all in complete darkness.

"Finally…" huffed the other guy—I mean, Eric. He fell asleep instantly.

Cole yawned, "You're gonna like it here, Amy…" and fell asleep too.

This was the first time I ever had roommates. I was an only child, and even if I had siblings, we would all have rooms to ourselves. I mean, my house had two extra rooms that we used for guests, so at first, I was worried about how I would get along with these guys. But then my eyelids grew heavy, and I was out like a light. Guess everything that happened tonight was enough to wear me out.

* * *

><p>The next thing I knew, the lights turned on, shining right into my eyes and waking me up. "Uugh…what time is it?" I asked, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.<p>

Cole answered, "Oh hey, Amy. It's 8:55 in the morning. Why?"

"Oh my gosh! Medabots is almost on! Quick, how do I change the channel for Fox Kids?" I shouted, scrambling down the ladder.

Cole stared at me blankly. "Medabots? Fox Kids? What are you talking about?"

"It always comes on at 9:00 on Saturday mornings! Now how do I change the channel?"

By this time, Eric had already woken up. "Hey, Jigglypuff girl..."

"Her name's Amy," explained Cole.

"Amy. Did you say Fox Kids?"

"Yeah! Don't you know it?" I jumped up and down, squirming with impatience. We were going to miss the episode at this rate!

"Of course I do." He gave me an odd look. "That's what it used to be called, like, ten years ago. Now there's no more cartoons on that channel."

I froze in place. I couldn't believe my ears. "What...?"

"Look. I'll show you..."

He turned on the gigantic wide-screen plasma TV and used the remote to channel 5. There were no cartoons...but it was definitely the Fox network.

I couldn't speak. What was going on in here?

Cole looked at me in confusion. "You sure you're not from the past or something?"

I couldn't tell if he was joking or if he was serious. But I knew that I wanted an explanation for this as much as him. Why did Fox Kids drop off the air so suddenly like that? They clearly said that a new episode of Medabots would be on this morning.

"It's okay," said Eric. "You can always see the Pokémon cartoon, although personally, I can't stand it. Here..."

As he flipped the channels, I asked him, "What kind of Pokémon are you?"

"Huh? Oh, me? I'm a Sableye. You didn't know that?"

Everyone seemed to be saying that. Maybe this WAS the future or something.

"By the way, I always watch Dragonball Z on weekdays at 5. Just so you know," said Eric.

Then he got to the channel, which was Cartoon Network, to my surprise. Yes, it was Pokémon...but it was Pokémon Black and White. Ash had a completely new outfit, Misty and Brock were nowhere to be found, and they were replaced with new people named Iris and Cilan. In addition, every single Pokémon on the show besides Pikachu and Meowth were ones that were completely new to me.

After the show was over, Cole turned off the TV. "Amy? Sorry we couldn't introduce ourselves properly. Want us to show you around the base? It's really cool. You're gonna like it."

"Uh...sure." I suppose I could've watched cartoons all morning, but I was too confused. I figured that I really needed to study that huge book later.

In the hallways, about the same number of Pokémon were out and about as the number of ones last night. "By the way, a lot of these guys sleep in late on weekends," Cole explained.

He and Eric led me on a tour throughout the facility. It really was all made of crystal in various colors. It was so huge that I don't even think we got close to covering everything. There were rooms with arcade games and rooms where you could watch movies. There was a giant theatre that could hold hundreds if not thousands of Pokémon, the breakfast room (I finally got a chance to taste real Pecha Berries. I lost count of how many I ate because they were so good!), the classrooms, an art room, and even several "store" places where apparently, everything was free! Normally, I wasn't very much into fashion, but there was this one place run by a guy (who I learned was a Leavanny) who could make a giant red bow like in Super Smash Bros. to tie on the back of my hair. He said that I was lucky I could arrive at that time, because normally, his shop was crowded by girls trying to make him give them complete makeovers. (And take in his handsome good looks, at least according to him. I really can't testify if this is true or not, because all guys looked ordinary to me.)

Finally, we came back to Room 301. I was exhausted. I grabbed the book and the piece of paper, climbed up to my bed, and plopped them down.

"So what'd you think?" asked Cole.

"Everything was so cool! This place is AWESOME! Except…"

"Except what?" asked Eric.

"…Everyone's older than me." I mean, it was nice to see that so many people were Pokémon fans who didn't think Pokémon was just for elementary school kids like me, but…

They looked at each other. Eric asked, "Yeah, how old ARE you, anyway? Seven?"

"No, ten. I'm not that short!" I complained.

"Actually, Amy…you are," said Cole.

"What do you mean? I'm not…" Right then, I remembered how my PJs felt a little more baggy than usual all day. "Wait…" I quickly climbed down the ladder and stood up next to them. "How tall am I now?"

Cole narrowed his eyes. "About my height. 3 feet 11 inches."

Three feet, 11 inches! I gasped. "I'm shrinking!" After all, I used to be 4 feet, 3 inches the day my parents measured me for my birthday.

"Nah, you're just turning into a Jigglypuff, remember?" said Eric.

"Oh, right. I forgot." I remembered that Jigglypuffs were 1 foot 8 inches. Man, that was short, now that I thought about it. Just like Eric.

"It'll be okay. Don't worry! Both Eric and I had to deal with it. Well, maybe Eric more so…I mean, he was 15 when this happened to him…"

"I'm still 15, you know. I haven't been here that long!" he retorted.

So as it turned out, Eric was 15, and Cole was 17. For the rest of the day, they both tried to use the computer at the same time, while I read the book. I studied it as hard as I could, memorizing the names and appearances of the Pokémon of the next three generations. I also studied the concepts of Abilities, battle tactics, double battles, triple battles, and more. I was surprised to find that Darren, as a Golurk, was actually Ground/Ghost-type and not Steel/Psychic like I thought. Or Steel/Fire, for that matter. Guess that explained the ground heaving and shadowy punches from when he rescued me. By the time an Ampharos patrolling the hallways said "Lights out", I was still reading! Yawning, I closed the book and conked out right there on the bed.

* * *

><p>The next day was spent with yet another tour around the place. My PJs felt baggier than yesterday, my skin started to turn pink, and my bright-green eyes were getting bigger. This time, though, they showed me around places such as sports arenas (they even had one for ping-pong!), the swimming pool, the gyms (both with and without equipment such as treadmills), and the battle arenas. None of these I had any particular interest in, except maybe the swimming pool. And the video game rooms. There were game systems I'd never seen before, such as the Nintendo 3DS and this thing called the Wii U. We passed one of the gyms normally used for Battle Class when Eric ran inside.<p>

"Ed!" he shouted, waving at what looked like a brownish keystone in the middle of the gym among many other Pokémon practicing battle moves.

The keystone was actually alive. A mess of purple and green ooze suddenly squirted out of it to form a face of some sort. "Eric!"  
>"What's up, man?"<br>"You are SO going down today!"

By this time, Cole and I had run in after them. At first, I was surprised, but then Cole said, "That's Ed, Edd, Eddy, Eduardo, Edward, Elric, Ed the 2nd, Ed the 3rd…Well, my point is, he's a Spiritomb."

Oh right, that creepy Dark/Ghost thing. "Oh yeah. The one made of 108 spirits? I didn't know they meant that literally."

Cole laughed, "Well, when Ed was a human, he had Multiple Personality Disorder, so it actually worked out pretty well for him!" I didn't even know there was such a thing as Multiple Personality Disorder.

Then Eric noticed us. "Oh, hey guys." Then to Ed, "Her name's Amy. She's my new roommate. And Cole's."

"Oh, hey! Nice to meet you!"  
>"Liking this place so far?"<br>"How old are you, anyway? Like, five?"  
>"We're all 16!"<br>"You're turning into a Jigglypuff, huh? That's a Normal-type, right?"  
>"Cool! That means we can go all-out with Ghost-type attacks!"<br>"Hey, don't hurt the poor thing! I'll clobber you if you do!"  
>"She's IMMUNE to it, douchebrain! Study harder!"<br>"Besides, we were gonna battle Eric! Were you even paying attention?"  
>"Huh? What?"<p>

I couldn't help but chuckle a bit, especially since Cole and Eric were rolling on the floor laughing. "They—I mean, he—never gets boring!" guffawed Cole, fighting off tears from laughing so hard. But it occurred to me that not only was the Jigglypuff transformation making me shorter; it was also making me look younger.

After they all recovered, Eric ran to one side of the gym, and Ed bounced over to the other side. Cole and I sat on a bench on the side, and suddenly, the Pokémon in the rafters above stopped to watch.

Eric sharpened his claws and shouted, "Today's the day I'm taking you DOWN!"

Ed retorted, "Yeah, yeah, keep dreaming, amateur." To my surprise, all of his voices spoke at the same time.

"In battle, Ed's personalities all combine into one. Makes him one of the fiercest fighters here. He and Eric battle each other almost every day," explained Cole.

The two of them charged. Suddenly, I realized what was happening. A real Pokémon battle. It couldn't possibly be turn-based like the ones in the games, right?

I was right. It wasn't. Eric opened with a Dark Pulse (I remembered the attack's picture from the book) and Ed tried to hide back in his rock, but it partially hit him as he went in. Then Eric leapt into the air and used Shadow Claw, making a huge crack in the rock and forcing Ed's face to come out. Ed then used an Ominous Wind, which spanned the entire battlefield and hurt everyone in it, including Cole, but not me. Turned out that the Jigglypuff part of me was strong enough to grant me type immunity. Whew!

"You can't beat me!" shouted Eric. "I have no type weaknesses! I AM INVINCIBLE!"

"Oh yeah?" shouted Ed. "SO AM I!" He zoomed at Eric even faster than before.

By this time, Cole recovered enough to laugh and say, "They always have to say that somewhere in every battle." It just occurred to me that I should check the combat chart again to find out if what they said was true.

They continued to clash until Ed turned the tables with a Curse attack. I knew this one. At first, it was kind of funny when Ed created a nail out of thin air and stabbed himself with it, but the effects on Eric were catastrophic. He did his best to finish off Ed, but Ed kept using Ominous Wind, and he was pretty lucky today, because he kept getting the stat boosts that normally had only a 10% chance of having. Eric was no match. With one final Dark Pulse from Ed, Eric fainted.

We ran over to him, and I became worried. "He just fainted, right? He's not really dead, right?" I asked.

Cole reassured me, "Don't worry. We NEVER die in battle. Just like in the games!"

As if to prove his point, Eric's gemstone eyes lit up again. "Rats." He then sat up and shouted, "WELL, THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW!"

Ed bounced out through another door. "IN YOUR DREAMS, SUCKER!"

As we helped Eric out of there, Cole said, "He actually did beat Ed once. That was when Ed forgot to use Curse."

Soon enough, though, Eric was okay enough to only need Cole to help him stand up. We were going back to our room when I heard someone say from another room, "And now presenting the Honorary Elite award to…Darren the Golurk!"

I stepped back and peeked through the window, though I had to stand on my tiptoes. Through it, I saw a room filled with Pokémon such as a Pidgeot, a Flareon, a Rhydon, and more in the seats. On the stage was an Escavalier and...Darren! The Escavalier presented him with a medal and updated his badge with the words "Honorary Elite" on it. Wow. A whole ceremony just for that? Judging from how loudly everyone was clapping, cheering, and throwing confetti, it must've been a REALLY big deal!

Darren went up to the microphone. "Thank you, thank you! In fact, it was all thanks to Amy the Jigglypuff, my Rescue Number 301!"

"AMY!" shouted Eric.

I jumped and nearly shrieked. Cole and Eric noticed I was lagging behind. "Come on! We're not allowed in there!" warned Cole. I followed them as quickly as I could.

Back in our room, they spent the rest of the evening fighting for the computer, as usual, until Cole finally decided to watch a bit of TV. On my bed, I studied the book even harder and found that yes, surprisingly enough, the Dark/Ghost type combination has no weaknesses, and the only ones with that combination were Sableyes and Spiritombs. Eric and Ed. Lucky them. Eventually, the same Ampharos passed by to say "Light's out."

In the darkness, Cole reminded me, "Remember. Classes are tomorrow."

I thought back to the class schedule I had and said, "Hang on. All our classes are in different rooms?"

"Yeah," said Eric. "What did you—? Wait…"

"My elementary school never did that! We always had the same teacher for all the subjects!" I sighed in dismay. "What am I gonna do?"

"Oh right, you were in 4th grade…" Cole then explained, "Don't worry, it's not that hard. Besides, we showed you where the classrooms were. You'll be fine."

That made me feel a lot better. "Thanks guys…"

As I closed my eyes, I thought over everything that happened the past few days. My 10th birthday, slowly turning into a Jigglypuff, Darren busting me out of that freaky lab place, coming here to Long Island, finding my way around this base, the freedom we had, the activities we could do here, the amazing food, the new Pokémon and things to learn about, witnessing a Pokémon battle…okay, except maybe for the battling aspect, everything here was perfect! I thought back to my mom and dad and my old life back at home, and the clone that must surely be taking my place by now. My clone…

Well…

I hoped she was happy where she was, because this new life of mine made this the best birthday ever!

Or so I thought…

**To be continued…**


	3. This is My New Life?

**Chapter 3: This is My New Life?**

"Yo Amy, wake up! It's time for school!"

It was Cole's voice from the bottom level bunk bed. I rubbed my eyes. "Nngh…school?" I mumbled.

Right then, a five-star notebook and a pencil were thrown, smacked into the wall to my left, and landed on my book. "Here. You'll need these." They were from Eric.

Then I remembered that it was Monday. Looked like school was the one thing I couldn't get out of, whether it was back at home or here at the Long Island Pokéumans base. I groaned as I remembered how my fellow 4th graders back at my old elementary school would just NOT STOP TALKING, even when the teacher was talking. Then we'd all get punished. Even me, when I just sat there without making a sound. Why couldn't they see that being good and keeping your mouth shut got you through school with a lot less trouble? Sheesh, such disrespectful people. I scowled at the memory.

"Amy? What's wrong?" asked Eric from the other side of the room as he got up too.

"I really hope the people here are better behaved than a bunch of 4th graders…" I grumbled.

Cole laughed, "No worries! Everyone here's thrilled to be a Pokémon, and the classes here are actually interesting. I don't think you'll run into any problems with immaturity."

"Okay, if you say so…" I grabbed the piece of paper on the book next to me and read it one more time, trying to memorize everything that was written on it.

**Schedule**

Student: Amy  
>Species: Jigglypuff<br>All classes cancelled on weekends.  
>One five-star notebook and one pencil are required.<p>

**Classes**

Math – Mr. Einbach – 9:00 to 9:55 – Room J205  
>_ – _ – 10:00 to 10:55 – _<br>_ – _ – 11:00 to 11:55 – _  
>Lunch – 12:00 to 12:55 – Cafeteria<br>Pokémon History – Ms. Kyurei – 1:00 to 1:55 – Room J506  
>Science and Technology – Mr. Paion – 2:00 to 2:55 – Room J309<p>

"Huh? Why are these blank?" I asked as I climbed down the ladder. I pointed from the 10:00 to 11:55 slots. In fact, I wondered why I hadn't noticed until now. Eric and Cole came up to take a closer look.

"Oh right, I forgot!" said Cole. "You're not a complete Jigglypuff yet, so you don't have to take Gym and Battle Classes. They'll fill those in one you are. Oh hey, look. We're in the same History class."

Gym AND Battle Classes? I got worried. Gym was always my worst subject, and Battle Class…I didn't want to think about how horrifying that would be. Would they be trying to kill me?

Eric eyed me and said, "You're shorter than Cole now. It won't be long."

I looked at my hands and found that my skin was even pinker than yesterday. More disturbing was the fact that my fingers on both of my hands were starting to fuse together. Even though my thumbs were intact, it was only a matter of time before they would disappear and I'd be left with just stubs for arms. I gulped. Maybe turning into a Jigglypuff wasn't such a good idea after all…

It looked like Cole read my mind when he said, "Oh, don't worry. Pokémon have ways to compensate for the lack of opposable thumbs. You'll see." And I believed him, mostly because he was a quadruped. But when the leaf rings around his neck sprouted some Vine Whips out, I gulped again. Jigglypuffs can't do that!

The three of us ate a quick breakfast in our room. (I had Pecha Berries, of course—I don't think I could ever get tired of the taste!) The two of them then walked me over to the J section of the base at 8:30, plenty of time to spare. Apparently, all their classes were in the J section just like mine.

Eric said, "Looks like me and Cole have different classes from you. I'm sure it won't be too hard for you to find Mr. Einbach's class. Good luck!"

"Each floor corresponds to a different 'hundred' number. We're on the 100s floor, which is the top. The floor below us has the 200's, and so on, all the way to the 900's. Just ride the elevators or take the stairs to get to the right floor. Well, see you in History, Amy!" Cole waved. The two of them went their separate ways.

It got really crowded in the hallways as I tried to make my way to Room J205. This wasn't anything like I was used to. Back at home, the teacher would always have us get into a line, single-file, and she'd lead us to wherever we needed to go. Here, it was pure chaos. There were no lines, everyone had different destinations, and several times I had to dodge Pokémon that were going to collide with me and had no intention of getting out of the way. Plus, everyone here was of wildly different heights and body types. I nearly got burned, frozen, splashed, electrocuted, and even skewered from the Pokémon around me. I tell you, Pokémon in a crowded hallway = not good. Why did they have to design Pokémon to be so freaking deadly? It also didn't help that my PJs were so baggy that I almost tripped and fell on the floor several times. Worst of all, though, the numbering system was all screwy, as rooms such as J216 were next to rooms like J237. Room J205, Room J205…Where WAS it?

BRRRRRIIIIING!

I looked at the clock. 9:00 am. NO! I was late on the first class of the first day! How would I make a good impression on the teachers and students if I was late? I'd never been late before, especially since the bus always got me to my elementary school well before class started. I looked around. The students were disappearing everywhere into rooms, almost as if they were merely waiting outside the doors for the bell to ring before even bothering to go in.

And I still couldn't find Room J205.

I blinked hard and tried to fight back tears, but inside, panic was welling up. What if I couldn't find it at all? Would I be lost in this maze forever? Would they yell at me for being absent? Or worst of all, would they put me in some sort of place called "detention" and punish me harshly? If only…if only there was a map of the place…some way to know where I was…

Then I found it. Room J205.

Desperate yet grateful, I dashed full speed ahead through the classroom entrance, which was taller and wider than any door I ever remembered—and suddenly, the floor gave way under me. My nose smashed into the carpeted floor and my left elbow hit hard, too. Instantly, there was a chorus of laughter. I realized what just happened. I tripped on my PJ pants!

"Everyone SHUT UP! She has feelings, too!" It was an older girl's voice, although I couldn't see who it was because I was still pushing myself off the floor, my face and left arm throbbing with pain.

"That will be enough, Jane. Please help up the new student. I believe her name is Amy." This time, I was able to look up to see where the masculine voice came from. It was a Porygon with eyeglasses and a black tie. He floated above me next to some sort of high-tech blackboard to my right. Then he turned to me and said, "Welcome, Amy. My name is Mr. Einbach."

"Here, let me help you up." Suddenly, a wave of psychic energy enveloped me and lifted me back on my feet. I looked up to see that she was a Kirlia. She helped me stagger to the empty seat in the middle, 2nd row from the front, right next to hers.

"Thanks…" I said as she helped me in the seat.

"No problem. I'm Jane. Nice to meet you!"

Unfortunately, the actual class itself wasn't much better. The equations that Mr. Einbach gave us to solve were WAY beyond 4th grade math, and even when Jane tried to explain it to me, I still didn't understand. She said we were learning about basic, 8th-grade level stuff like algebraic equations and the coordinate plane, but I still didn't get it. The whole concept of X just drove me nuts. What did X even mean? Like that mad scientist Mr. X? And coordinate planes? They looked like a bunch of randomly generated line drawings on some sort of grid. Finally, the bell rang, and I turned back to head to Room 301 until lunchtime.

"See you tomorrow, Amy! Here's a map. And don't give up. I'll keep helping you!" said Jane as she danced down the hall and disappeared into the crowd of Pokémon.

I didn't reply. I was in way over my head. At least she was nice enough to give me a map, though. I was grateful for that.

I had almost left the crowds of the J section when I heard an obnoxious guy's voice say something like, "Ugh. They let three-year-olds in here now?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Machamp and a Weezing, hanging out by a hall corner, partially obscured by the crowd.

"And a total fashion dunce at that. I knew it. This place really is going to the pits." I was surprised. The Weezing was female. She and the Machamp were far away, but seemed to speak loudly for no reason in particular.

Except they were looking at me.

I turned my head, hopped on the elevator, and when it reached the top floor, ran all the way to my room, trying my best to expunge their cruel statements from my head. Just pretend it never happened. Yeah, they were probably referring to someone else nearby. Of course, I must've looked like a three-year-old at that point, but still, it was probably just an isolated incident. I was sure I would never meet them again. So in order to chase it and everything else that happened in math class from my head, I climbed up to my bed, picked up the book, and read some more.

I kept reading until it was thirty minutes to noon. I wasn't sure if the cafeteria would be open that early, but I didn't like it when it got too crowded, so I closed the book and headed off to the lunchroom immediately. Turned out, it was open. Behind the lunch counter, Ms. Yepergo, a Miltank and one of the many cooks that worked there, smiled as soon as I arrived. I ordered the Pecha Berry meal mixture (that apparently had 1/3 of the daily required nutritional vitamins and minerals) with vanilla pudding on top along with a side of strawberry-flavored Moomoo Milk. It was pretty obvious that she knew what I was going to order every day from then on. I didn't bother with too much variety. If I liked something, I always stuck with it.

While I was eating, Eric and Cole came in, got their meals, and sat right next to me. "Yo Amy! How'd Math go? I heard Mr. Einbach was one of the best," said Cole, completely enthusiastic.

I winced. Then I concentrated on my food and said, "…I'd really rather not talk about it."

Eric was stunned. "What? Aww, come on! He couldn't have been THAT bad…could he?"

So I had to explain everything that happened, from being late to not understanding anything. They didn't say anything the whole time.

"Yikes…that's not cool. Hey, at least Jane was nice enough to give you a map. Eh-heh…sorry we forgot about that…" apologized Eric.

Cole patted my head with the leaf on his and said, "Look, no one should EVER have to go through what you just did. I'll tell you what. We'll both walk to History class. Then I'll show you how to get to Science."

I nodded, feeling better. "Thanks, Cole…"

Sure enough, just as he said, we were able to walk all the way to Room J506. Actually, I rode on his back while he went down the elevators and trotted through the crowds like they weren't even there at all. It was a dizzying ride, but I managed to keep my wits about me long enough to remember how to get there.

The teacher was an Archeops named Ms. Kyurei, and she basically taught an in-depth version of the movie Headmistress Asula showed me on my first day here. For today's class, we were learning about how the Legendary Pokémon constructed the portal to the alternate dimension where they would escape from the humans. It was way more fascinating than Math, I could actually understand everything, and I took very good notes that I was proud of.

When the bell rung, a certain Meinshao ran over to me and gushed, "Oh wow! They let you in high school even through you're only ten years old?"

"Uh, yeah…although I'm not sure I'm really supposed to be here…" I said.

"You're just like little Chiyo in Azumanga Daioh!"

I was confused. "Like who in what?"

"This book!" She held it up, and it looked like a comic book, except that the cover looked sort of backwards. "About a girl like you in high school."

"Can I read it?" I asked, holding out my hands.

"Um…actually, I don't think kids your age are supposed to read it, since there's a creepy per—"

A male Unfezant pecked the Meinshao and said, "Not in front of the kid!"

"So…yeah…sorry," she apologized.

"Oh…" I pretended like it was nothing, but inside, I was crying. Why wasn't I allowed to read a book with a girl like me as the main character? A comic book, too. It was so unfair.

Finally, after the class, Cole brought me to Room J309, Mr. Paion's class, and had to leave for his own. I hoped he wouldn't be late. Mr. Paion was a Grumpig who wore a white lab coat and a set of safety goggles over his forehead like the main characters in Digimon, and the sides of his room consisted of sinks, glass cups for science experiments, and fascinating posters full of diagrams and information that I couldn't stop reading even when the bell for the start of class rung.

"Welcome to Science and Technology, Amy! You may call me Mr. Paion." It was easy for him to talk to me since I literally sat in the desk right in front of him. He then strode to the high-tech blackboard (it seemed like all the blackboards in this place were like Game Boy Advance screens except with much better resolution) and picked up a treasure chest-looking container with a sophisticated lock on it. He used his psychic power to unlock it and assemble what was inside into metal ring of some sort. "Who would like to explain to Amy what this is?"

The person to my right (who I recognized as a Gothorita) waved her hand in the air, wildly. Everyone else just groaned, sighed, or stared at their notebooks on their desks. Mr. Paion sighed and called on her. "Go ahead, Sammy."

She danced to the front, took the ring from Mr. Paion, and explained to me, "This is a humanizing ring. If you put it on, you turn back into the human you used to be." To prove her point, she tilted her head and managed to thread her elaborate Mickey Mouse-shaped ears and white ribbons through the ring until it hung around her neck. She was obviously enjoying it as if it were some sort of performance. She then pressed a button on the ring, and instantly shot up to become a 14-year-old girl wearing a black frilly dress laced with white ribbons. I was stunned. "But be careful," she warned. "If you have it on for too long, it permanently mutates you and stuff. How old are you…ten? It would be especially bad for you. And technically, me too." She slipped the ring over her head and immediately changed back into a Gothorita.

"Thank you, Sammy. You may take your seat now," said Mr. Paion.

For the rest of the class (after he disassembled the ring, put it back, and locked it up again), Mr. Paion lectured about the ring and how only high-ranking members of the Pokéuman Rescue Troop (PRT) were authorized to use it, as well as the technical jargon behind how it worked. I couldn't understand much of what he was saying at that point. Instead, my mind wandered to Darren. Why hadn't I been able to see him lately, except for that brief time on Sunday? Was he really that busy? Did he use those rings all the time? And why…?

The bell interrupted my thoughts, and I realized that the only thing I'd written down was that the PRT could use the rings. Sammy noticed and whispered, "That's okay. I'll let you look over my notes tomorrow," before leaving.

I decided that I wanted to see Darren again and ask him how things were going. It felt a bit unfair that he would rescue me from being skewered, bring me here, explain a lot of things, and suddenly—bam—never bother to see me again. I honestly thought that we could've been good friends, that he would explain more, that maybe, since my mom and dad weren't here anymore, maybe he would help—

"Hey! Fuzzbutt! What are you doing here?"

I froze. I slowly turned around from my map to see that Machamp and Weezing again. "Oh! Um…I'm just trying to find the PRT—"

"Idiot!" interrupted the female Weezing. "You're not allowed in there. No ordinary student is."

My heart skipped a beat. "Oh! Sorry. I'll just—"

All of a sudden, the Machamp slugged me in the jaw from across the hall in less than half a second. I never saw it coming. It HURT. It threw me into the wall behind me, shocked, stunned, and with my head spinning.

"Don't you get it?" he growled. "We're here to punish everyone who even tries to LOOK for it. And that includes little snot rag, three-year-old brats like you."

"But I'm ten—!"

"SAME DIFFERENCE!"

I narrowly leapt out of the way before another lightning-fast punch pummeled the place where my head was, and ran for my life. Right then, though, the Weezing blew a vast cloud of Smokescreen that completely obscured my vision. I staggered to the wall and tried to feel my way as I ran. Why wasn't anyone around? Was this place really off-limits? Why didn't Eric, Cole, and I encounter these cruel guys when we accidently went by the PRT's meeting room? Whatever the case, I had to run away from them and get back to Room 301. FAST.

Suddenly, a nasty, noxious, purple glob blasted me in the face and slammed me into another wall. I choked as some of it accidentally went down my throat, and it burned the whole way down. I tried to get back up, but then the Machamp hoisted me up by my shirt and held me up in the air.

"Honestly, a Jigglypuff? You're just ASKING to get creamed," he taunted.

Then he slugged me squarely with a Cross Chop. With four arms. The pain exploded in my chest and head so badly that I thought I was going to die, and when I slammed against the wall again, I lost all consciousness.

* * *

><p>"…Amy!"<p>

…

"Amy!"

…

…

"AMY!"

I must have drifted in and out of consciousness, but finally, I could feel myself rising to the surface. I slowly opened my eyes, as slowly as I could, so I could adjust to the glare of bright whiteness. My eyes weren't the only thing that hurt, though—my head, my chest, even my legs; they were all aching like crazy. I could still feel the wounds from the battle that was more like a massacre.

Finally, I opened my eyes, and I realized I wasn't dead after all. I was lying in a hospital bed in a room where the crystal walls were all perfectly white. There were several other beds with other Pokéumans in various stages of transformation as well as those who were fully Pokémon. The one sitting to my left surprised me, though. A robot from Atlantis—no wait…

"…Darren?" I managed to croak out, and realized that my throat was dry beyond belief.

"Amy! Jeez, don't scare me—oh wait, here." He handed me a cup of water and I drank it all in one gulp. Aaaah…so much better!

"Darren…? What happened…?" I asked.

"Some jerks named Patch—he's the Machamp—and Connie—she's the Weezing—knocked you out and tried to kill you, but I found them and stopped them just in time. The headmistress now has them in detention. It'll be okay now."

"But why…? Why would they do that? They said I wasn't allowed…"

"Well, it's true not many are allowed in the PRT's headquarters, but it's completely wrong to kill people for even trying to find it. Funny, though. They've never had a history of bullying. I don't know what went wrong with them."

Just then, a Chansey nurse came over and said, "Oh, good! You're finally awake."

I asked, "…How long was I out?"

"For the whole week. It's Saturday evening now. It was really scary, too—with how badly they beat you up, those concussions you had, and the poison in your system, your transformation was almost permanently distorted. But don't worry. We worked around the clock to make sure everything went smoothly." She gave Darren a mirror and left.

He held the mirror in front of me, and I could barely believe my eyes. I was a full Jigglypuff already (albeit with bandages wrapped all around me), complete with big blue-green eyes and stubby limbs. I sighed in dismay. Now how would I pick up a pencil—or do anything, for that matter? Speaking of pencils…I noticed that my pencil was smashed on the bed of my bed. My notebook and PJs were also shredded in a million pieces everywhere.

"You were delirious for the first two days and unconscious for the rest. Like she said, it was scary," he said as he pulled the mirror away. "But I'm honestly glad you're okay. Would've looked really bad on my record if my Rescue Number 301 got killed on the first day of school," he laughed.

I originally thought it was an innocuous comment, but the way Darren said it this time, it suddenly felt he shoved a knife through my heart. It might have been the stress of the first day of school, it could have been ignorance, but more likely, it was the insults of that Patch and Connie that I realized I could no longer ignore and pretend I never heard them.

It was like an ocean of water had actually been building behind the walls of my heart—and just like that, for the first time in my life, the dam shattered into a million pieces and the ocean flooded through.

I just exploded right there on the spot. **"DARREN! WHY? Is that why you left me there and never bothered to see me again? I'm just a number to you?"**

"Amy, no! Of course I care—I was too busy—"

"**I had the worst day ever! The halls were too crowded and I got lost and was ten minutes late and everyone laughed at me! I couldn't understand anything and those guys were mean to me! Everyone treated me like an idiot and said I couldn't read this book because of no good reason! And—!"**

"Just give it time, then you'll—"

**"And the worst part was when they beat me up and tried to kill me just because I wanted to see you again! And I didn't even do anything to them! I HATE IT HERE! Darren, only you and the other guys get those special rings and get to go outside, right? Then please, Darren, let me join the PRT!"**

He covered my mouth immediately. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, Amy! Slow down! Do you even know WHAT you're asking? Just the training itself is really hard, especially for someone like you. Then you have to perform a lot of inside missions before they even let you outside. It'll take a long time."

"I don't care!" I shot back, slapping his hand away from my mouth. "I can't stay here anymore!"

"You'll be up against humans with guns and Pokéxtinction agents trying to kill you, risking your life to save people you don't know!"

"I don't care!" What I wanted to say was that Patch and Connie nearly killed me, and from that standpoint, it would make no difference except that out there, I had a chance to get away, whereas here, I didn't. Except that I was so consumed with agony that I had no way of expressing all that at the time.

"This is the only chance you have to live the life you've always wanted! If you join us, you'll be throwing it all away!"

"I can't live the way I want if those guys are going to kill me every time they see me."

That got his attention. "Right…" he mused. "I see what the problem is. You're worried that they'll stalk you for life or something." He thought for a bit. "Here's what I think you should do. Go to school for a full week. You'll adjust to it and make friends. Now—before you say anything—let me remind you that those jerks are still in detention and won't be out for a while. By the time they're released, they shouldn't hurt you if you don't go near the PRT area. And if they do…well, by then, you'll have friends that'll help you out. The news of your accident really caused a sensation. Everyone knows about it now, and they'll help you if the jerks hassle you again. Just try it. You'll see."

I listened and thought it through for a long time. Finally, I could see his logic. "All right…fine," I sighed. "I'll try it."

"There we go. My experience was that if you're upset, you tend to make bad decisions. I just wanted to save you from one that could wreck your life. I've seen it happen to too many PRT members," he explained. He stood up, patted my head, and placed a sheet of paper in front of me. "Here's your full schedule now that you're a 100% Jigglypuff."

As he headed out the door, I noticed that many of the patients and nurses were looked at us. Maybe the racket we were making attracted their attention. I didn't care. How could they ever understand how I felt?

"Oh yeah, and Amy?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not just a number to me, I swear. And remember. Life isn't just about surviving. It's about living. Be sure to try and have fun too, okay?"

I answered, "But I'm trying as hard as I can…"

With that, he left. I then looked at the piece of paper.

**Schedule**

Student: Amy  
>Species: Jigglypuff<br>All classes cancelled on weekends.  
>One five-star notebook and one pencil are required.<p>

**Classes**

Math – Mr. Einbach – 9:00 to 9:55 – Room J205  
>Gym – Mr. Buchanon – 10:00 to 10:55 – Training Room 12<br>Battle Class – Mr. Brimhall – 11:00 to 11:55 – Training Room 14  
>Lunch – 12:00 to 12:55 – Cafeteria<br>Pokémon History – Ms. Kyurei – 1:00 to 1:55 – Room J506  
>Science and Technology – Mr. Paion – 2:00 to 2:55 – Room J309<p>

I just stared at it. The blanks that used to be there were replaced with Gym and Battle Class, just as Eric and Cole said they would. Gym was by far my worst subject in elementary school, not necessary because I was slow or weak, exactly, but because they always played pointless yet dangerous games like dodgeball or tug-of-war. I absolutely loathed them. Then there was Battle Class…it didn't sound as bad, but the prospect of attacking others, or more likely, getting attacked by them, made me sick to my stomach, considering how my first attackers nearly killed me.

Then I looked at the clock on the walls. 3:30 pm? They said today was a Saturday.

That meant they made me miss Medabots and Digimon. Or at least I would have, if the whole Fox Kids channel wasn't suddenly taken off the air. What was WITH this place?

I buried my face in my pillow and let loose a lot more tears than when Darren was here, sobbing uncontrollably. I didn't know how long it would last, and didn't care. It was worse than anything I ever felt in my whole life, and I didn't know why. It freaked me out.

I really didn't want to hate Darren, but at that point, I was worried to death that maybe, just maybe…he wasn't as nice as he said he was.

* * *

><p>The nurses suggested that I stay in the hospital until Monday, so that's what I did. By that time, all my aches were gone, and I could take all the bandages off. According to them, I healed a lot faster as a Jigglypuff. Eric and Cole were nice enough to give me another five-star notebook and pencil. I found to my surprise that I could still hold them perfectly despite having only stubs for arms. (I think it was some kind of magnetic force or the cohesive forces of the light, soft fur on my skin…I couldn't tell.)<p>

This time, I managed to find my way to Mr. Einbach's Math class without incident (although there were a couple of scary moments when I thought I'd taken a wrong turn), and though I still couldn't understand much, I think Jane was starting to help me get it. Everyone in the class heard about my incident, but it seemed that only Jane expressed vehement anger about Patch and Connie.

Then there was Gym…Urgh…Well, if it wasn't for Eric, I'd be completely lost and late to that class too. Turned out, we had the same Gym class. Training Room 12 had concrete walls, a concrete ceiling that went up so high I could barely make out the rafters, and a dirt floor, with long crystal benches on either side.

"Oh, hey! You must be new here. Amy, right? Well, my name is Mr. Buchanon, and I'll be your Gym teacher." I realized in dismay that he was a Throh. What was WITH all these Fighting-types around?

"And the first game we're going to play is…" He suddenly pulled a white ball from behind his back. "Dodgeball!"

Everyone cheered. I just stood there in horror. Dodgeball…WHY did it have to be dodgeball? Don't these people know that those things could fracture my skull? Wait…I'm a Jigglypuff now…that's even worse! I'd be SQUISHED!

To make matters worse, Eric was picked to be on the opposite side. Mr. Buchanon blew the whistle hanging around his neck, and a second later, there were balls being thrown everywhere. I crouched down close to the bench and made myself as small as possible, hoping that I wouldn't get hit too badly.

"Hey, Amy!" It was Eric.

I opened my eyes. "What?"

"Here, let me show you something. Catch this." He tossed one of the balls he was holding at a much slower speed than everyone else, and surprisingly enough, I was able to catch it. But it wasn't white as it used to be. It was pure black. Suddenly, the lights were extinguished and I was thrust in total darkness.

"AAAH! I can't see!" In complete shock, I dropped the ball. As quickly as the lights were extinguished, they turned back on again. The ball I dropped went from black to its original white color. But the weirdest part was that no one seemed to notice the darkness and kept playing like nothing happened.

"Hurry, pick it up before that guy does!" shouted Eric.

So I did, despite worrying that I might be plunged into darkness again. "What was THAT about?" I asked, shaking.

"The balls' effects change depending on your type. Look…" The other ball he was holding was dark purple. As he wound up to throw it, it turned invisible, and when he threw it, his target never saw it coming. "See? Now you try it." Ghost and Dark-type balls, huh?

I wound up the ball and threw it as hard as I could at a random guy on Eric's team. To my dismay, not only did the ball stubbornly stick close to the ground—it didn't change color or have any special effects at all. Plus, the guy saw it coming and dodged it easily. "WHAT?" I shouted.

"Oh, whoops. I forgot," said Eric, scratching his head in embarrassment. "Normal-type balls don't do anything."

Suddenly, I was impaled hard to my right by an orange ball that was shot like a rocket. The impact made me crash into the bench and for a brief moment made me remember the time Patch slugged me like that. To my surprise, the one who threw the ball was…Mr. Buchanon? In fact, he just joined Eric's team and started helping their side out.

I hid under the bench and sobbed in dismay, with no guarantee that I wouldn't be hit again by any stray balls, paying no attention to those already sitting on it and wondering what I was doing down there. Normal-type balls don't do anything, but all the other types do…and Normal-types already have no type advantages and don't even get a 50% boost for same-type attacks. I really got the short end of the stick this time.

Eric had to personally drag me out of there when the games were over, apologizing to me the whole time, as I didn't believe that the balls were gone. He led me to Training Room 14 where my nearby Battle Class was, although that wasn't his class. I wanted to hope that he wouldn't be late, but after what happened today, I was too crushed care.

"You're…Amy, right?"

I looked up to see a Smeargle. "Welcome to Battle Class. I'm Mr. Brimhall."

As he introduced me to the class (which was made of only Normal-type Pokémon, to my relief), I noticed that the room was even bigger than the gym. It had steel-plated walls, a steel ceiling, dirt floor, lots of wooden dummies of various shapes, and a running track. "By the way, it's tradition for all new students to perform their attacks to the class. Here, Amy. Try it out." He gestured to one of the dummies next to himself.

Uh-oh. Did I even know any attacks? I might've known Sing, but for the first time, I realized I didn't know WHAT the real lyrics to Jigglypuff's song were. Not that it would've been much help against a dummy. I think I knew Pound, though. I raced towards the dummy and punched it as hard as I could.

It didn't even make a dent.

In fact, the dummy simply bounced the impact right back at me and threw me on the ground. Ugh. Stupid thing. I punched it again and again and again, ignoring the comments by the other students. Somehow, punching it like that started to make me feel better.

"If you concentrate, you'll be able to see if there are any other attacks you might know," said one of the other students whose name I forgot.

So I rested for a bit, closed my eyes, and concentrated, like he said. Only one technique came to mind. By reflex, I tucked my ears in and curled into a tough little ball.

"Defense Curl. Very good. Anything else?" asked Mr. Brimhall.

I uncurled and concentrated again. Nothing seemed to come to mind. "...Nope. That's all." Just Pound and Defense Curl for me. And most of these guys had four moves. Jeez, they must've thought I was lame.

The rest of class just had us train on the dummies. I also ran around the track four times, trying to practice the mile run that we used to run every year at my elementary school, but I didn't get very far and had to walk the last two loops, completely exhausted.

Lunch, History, and Science passed by without incident. Actually, something good happened at the end of History.

"Um…Amy?" The same Meinshao from last time tapped my ear to get my attention.

"Yeah?"

"I heard about what happened. I'm so sorry! But here, let me make it up to you! Even though you probably shouldn't read Azumanga Daioh, here's something else from the same author that's suitable for you. It's his latest book." The title of the book she held out was Yotsuba&!.

"Yo—tsu—ba and…?" What a weird title time. Then again, so was the other one.

"It's because all the chapter names are Yotsuba and something. See?" She opened it to the table of contents and there I saw it was true. Yotsuba and Moving, Yotsuba and Global Warming, Yotsuba and Rain…etc. "Okay, so maybe the main character is a five-year-old girl, but I still think you'd like it. Want to borrow it?"

My face lit up. "Really? Yeah!"

She smiled. "By the way, my name's Kayla."

"And I'm Chase. Nice to meet you!" said the Unfezant from before.

Chase and Kayla. Sounded like the main characters from Fighting Foodons, a show on Fox Kids I once checked out, but I bet they didn't even know or care. It was practically another clone of Pokémon, anyway.

* * *

><p>The rest of the week passed by in much the same way. Difficult time in Math (though Jane helped a lot), pure torture in Gym, blowing off steam in Battle Class, a really good lunch, borrowing a new <span>Yotsuba&amp;!<span> book from Kayla and returning the previous, and taking a lot of good notes in both History and Science. I really had mixed feelings, though. So I asked Sammy at the end of Science on Friday how long the school year lasted.

"All year," she sighed. "No summer break, either. But they do give us holidays off."

I hung my head. Was it going to be like this the whole time?

"But don't worry! There's never any homework or tests, so it's actually pretty cool."

Oh yeah, I noticed. Good point.

I walked down the hallways on my way back to Room 301, looking forward to an exciting weekend with Eric, Cole, and some of my new friends. Along the way, I came across a hall where no one was there. Odd…but I figured that since it was Friday, everyone wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the Teacher's Pet Fuzzbutt."

I turned around with dread. I recognized that voice. It was Patch the Machamp! And Connie the Weezing was with him, too!

I shouted, "But I'm nowhere near the PRT!" as I ran away as fast as I could.

"Who said this was about the PRT?" retorted Connie in a very nasty voice.

"Wh—what do you mean?" They wouldn't stop chasing me.

"We had to stay in detention with Asula's stupid Surf attack for TWO WHOLE WEEKS! And you're gonna PAY!" Patch threw a punch that knocked me off my feet and slammed me into the wall.

At the same time, Connie let out another Smokescreen. This was bad. I couldn't see, I was coughing, and they were cornering me again. Wasn't ANYONE here to help like Darren said they would?

Then inexplicably, Patch said something like, "Aww...hi!"

"PATCH, YOU IDIOT! That's her CUTE CHARM ability!" I thought I heard a thwacking sound of some sort.

"Oh, right." Whatever it was, he seemed to snap out of it. Oh yeah…abilities. Why did I have to be attacked in order for it to activate? And only a 30% of it activating, too.

Connie's voice jeered from the cover of smoke. "What are they teaching you in Battle Class—how to throw pebbles? THIS is how you really battle." Suddenly, she tackled me and prepared to spit up a gooey mass of purple liquid. In less than half a second, she would poison me!

But she spat over my head, only to land on…Patch. But though he got poisoned, he didn't seem to suffer. Instead, his muscles inflated and he looked stronger than ever. I gasped. Was this the so-called famous Toxic move on a Pokémon with the Guts ability that increased attack power by 50% like the book said? I was in deep trouble now.

I tried running for it again, shouting "WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?" as loud as I could, but I had no way of knowing if anyone heard me. The Smokescreen was too thick. Connie spat another Sludge Bomb at me, knocking me off my feet and poisoning me. This was bad. This was really, really bad. Oh, wait! If only I could get back to my room and eat a Pecha Berry, I could—

"Does it matter? 'Cause I don't think so!" Patch leapt into the air and slammed me in my back with a square-on Cross Chop. It HURT. It hurt way worse than the last time he hit me with that same attack, and I blacked out on the spot.

* * *

><p>"…Amy!"<p>

…

"…Not again…"

…

…

"AMY!"

Once again, I woke up in the hospital room with Darren by the side of my bed and my notebook and pencil shredded and broken. At least my aches and bruises weren't quite as bad as last time. But that was just…my physical injuries…

"…Uurgh…" I blinked my eyes open.

He was relieved. "Oh good! Man, that was close…again! Don't worry. Headmistress Asula placed those jerks in detention again. By the way, it's Sunday. You were out for two days."

I stared him squarely in the eyes, completely serious, and glared. "…Darren?"

"Yeah?" He stiffened.

Was this what would happen to me for the rest of my life? Would I have to go through Gym torture, the same classes the whole year through, and Patch and Connie beating me up every so often with absolutely no chance of me winning against them, or even walking away without fainting? Would I never be able to watch Medabots and Digimon ever again? I saw what was going on. They claimed I was trespassing in the PRT area, but they really just wanted to beat me up. They would use whatever excuse possible. And every time, they would claim that they were getting revenge from being sent to detention. They would never leave me alone. And Darren only bothered to see me whenever this would happen.

In a situation like this, there was only one choice, no matter how dangerous or deadly it might be. Because a chance to go outside would be better than being trapped in here with them forever. And I wasn't going to have Darren see me as just a number anymore, either.

"Sign me up for the PRT. Now."

**To be continued…**


	4. I Won't Take This Anymore

**Chapter 4: I Won't Take This Anymore**

The veteran Jigglypuff paced back and forth in front of me, exuding a cool, calm air of infinite patience. "Okay, so you want to go from a Trainee to a Rookie, right? Well, I know the best way how." Suddenly, he turned right to me and shouted, "LEARN A NEW MOVESET!"

"L—like what?" I asked, my teeth chattering. Okay, so as a Jigglypuff myself, I didn't exactly have any so-called teeth anymore, but I could still chew things…so something in my mouth was definitely chattering.

"Defense Curl. Rollout. Hyper Voice. Thunderbolt. As a fellow Jigglypuff, I shall teach you all there is to know about how to master this combination that I have personally picked out for you. Unless you thought of any other ideas for your moveset. Did you, Amy?"

I thought. "None that I know of."

"Then welcome to the world of the Pokéuman Rescue Troop! Your training begins…now."

This was Magic. He was a Jigglypuff who was already in the PRT as a high-ranking member, high enough to rescue fellow Pokéumans from the Pokéxtinction organization, just like Darren. He also wore a red flower on the left side of his head. I did not know why.

We stood in Training Room 5, one of the official rooms reserved exclusively to teach those like myself who've made the decision to join the PRT. It was much like Training Room 14, with its steel-plated walls, steel ceiling with girders, dirt floor, and jogging track that looped the wide-open dirt field where we were standing. But it also had trapeze swings, poles sticking out the ground, wooden dummies, and various raised platforms. Oddly enough, the dirt floor had a white line on it that threaded through the poles, and I couldn't figure out why. But other than that, it was the perfect area for training.

And for trapeze artists, for those who were interested.

It was also 10:00 am on Monday, the day after I told Darren to sign me up for the PRT. Well…he didn't, exactly. Instead, he gave me the official form, I signed it, and he brought it to Headmistress Asula, who apparently changed my schedule to look like this:

**Schedule**

Student: Amy  
>Species: Jigglypuff<br>All classes cancelled on weekends. **Except for PRT training.  
><strong>One five-star notebook and one pencil are required.

**Classes**

Math – Mr. Einbach – 9:00 to 9:55 – Room J205  
>PRT Training – 10:00 to 10:55 – Training Room 5<br>More PRT Training – 11:00 to 11:55 – Training Room 5  
>Lunch – 12:00 to 12:55 – Cafeteria<br>Pokémon History – Ms. Kyurei – 1:00 to 1:55 – Room J506  
>Science and Technology – Mr. Paion – 2:00 to 2:55 – Room J309<br>Even More PRT Training – 3:00 to 5:00 – Training Room 5

Darren also handed me a form that explained all the ranks of the Pokéuman Rescue Troop and the requirements to reach each rank.

_**Trainee** – Pokéumans who have just joined the PRT and are still in training. No missions allowed until training is complete._

_**Rookie** – They cannot be assigned any missions that require them to the leave the base._

_**2nd Class **– Level for Rookies who complete 20 "inside" missions. They are assigned missions outside the base, such as patrolling or keeping guard. They cannot use a humanizing ring yet._

_**1st Class **– Level for 2nd Class members who complete 50 missions. They can be assigned much more difficult missions. They may be used as backup during rescues. They may use a prototype humanizing ring._

_**Star Rescuer **– Level for 1st Class members who complete 80 missions. Star Rescuers will be given a humanizing ring and will be allowed to rescue Pokéumans from trucks._

_**Star Infiltrator **– An alternate rank. You can be assigned this rank from 1st Class. Star Infiltrators can be assigned missions that require infiltrating Pokéxtinction hideouts/information sites (not bases)._

_**Junior Elite** – Either Star-ranked member can be promoted as Junior Elite if they complete 100 missions. They can be assigned any kind of mission, but difficulty is limited._

_**Elite** – Level for Junior Elite members who complete 150 missions. They will be assigned harder missions that require a high level of skill. Many PRT members stay on this rank._

_**Honorary Elite** – Once a PRT member has successfully completed **over** 300 missions, they will be promoted to the Honorary Elite Rescue Troop. A member of this rank will be assigned any kind of mission. This is the one of the hardest ranks to achieve and any Pokéuman who can reach this rank will be treated in high regard._

Then there's the Commander, but our base already had one who wasn't going to retire anytime soon, so that rank was out of the question for now. But still, I could now see why everyone made such a big deal out of Darren becoming an Honorary Elite. It was the absolute highest rank of all, and if Darren was any indicator, it took years to reach it, if ever. I noticed the key words "over 300 missions." Especially the "over" part. And since I was his Rescue Number 301 (though it seemed that basic missions that had nothing to do with rescuing whatsoever counted in that total), that was why he made such a big deal out of me. Yeah, he was an Honorary Elite, and I was now just a simple Trainee, but I was already on my way to proving to him once and for all that I would be more than just a simple number responsible for his success.

Both sheets of paper were carefully folded into my five-star notebook, which was left safely to the side of the Training Room along with my pencil. I glanced at it, thinking about the full impact of this decision I personally made, and then faced Magic again, ready to begin my training that would last a full two weeks.

"First off, perform a Defense Curl."

Easy enough.

"Now roll forward. Come on, do it!"

That was much harder. Okay, so maybe the rolling aspect wasn't too hard, but the fact of the matter was…

WHAM!

Apparently, I had run right into a pole. I uncurled myself and slid down to the ground in pains and aches. "Ooow…"

"Now try again."

My jaw dropped. "But I couldn't see! How am I supposed to know where I'm going?" Jeez, the Donphan from Pokémon: The First Movie made it look easy.

Magic walked up to me and patted my head sympathetically. "That's what I thought too, when I first tried it. See, when we use Rollout, our fur can detect the presences of Pokémon, attacks, objects, and even the very landscape, just from the air currents. Plus, we open our eyes for fractions of a second. It's an acquired skill that takes constant practice, and is very difficult to learn, but the payoff in battle is more than worth the challenge. Of course, I can always teach you Thunderbolt instantly."

I perked up. "How? With a TM?"

He pulled a shiny yellow CD disc from behind his back. "That's right!"

I just stared at it in surprise. "…That's a TM? I thought it was a box filled with powder that you scatter on your head." That was, after all, how Technical Machines were depicted in Pokémon by Toshihiro Ono, a comic that I read all the time back at home. It was based off the animated series.

Magic laughed. "Wow, what've you been reading? Oh wait, you didn't get past 2nd gen. Yeah, they didn't show these things until the remakes of Red and Blue. 3rd gen. Anyway, here's how you do it. Hold still."

He pressed the disc on my head, and suddenly, a storm of electricity blasted into my head and coursed through my whole body, making my hair and fur stand up on end. "AAAAAAAAH!" I shouted, releasing all the electricity from my fur. Magic dodged in time and yanked the disc away as I completely electrocuted all the training dummies in the general vicinity.

"Okay…" he gasped. "So technically, we'll have to work on your control, but at least you didn't have to forget any moves."

I looked at the TM disc he was still holding. It was still bright yellow. "Why—?"

"Oh, right. In 5th gen, TMs have unlimited uses, just like HMs. Convenient, huh?"

It just blew my mind. "Yeah…"

He stood up straighter, gestured to the white line threading through the poles, and said, "So. Whaddya say we continue learning how to master Rollout?"

And naturally, I did, for the next two hours. I curled into balls and rolled and ended up crashing into the poles (and sometimes the walls) over and over and over again. But I wouldn't give up. No matter how badly I hurt myself, I swore that I would learn how to master that move. Magic said that if I did, I would be able at least 10 times faster than even my fastest running speed, and I'd be able to inflict damage; double damage by using Defense Curl beforehand. And then there was the issue with Patch and Connie. I wasn't going to take their abuses anymore. I was getting out of here no matter what it took.

By the time it was all over and Magic called for me to stop, I had begun to get a feeling that despite all my bangs and bruises, I finally understood the trick. Yes, I learned how to blink my eyes briefly once every couple seconds, but more importantly, I started to get a feel for where the poles were, especially if they were close by. I could tell because near the end of the session, I didn't run into the poles nearly as much as the beginning.

Even Magic noticed. "Good job. Within a day or two, you'll learn the trick, and that's when the REAL training begins. Keep up the good work, Amy, and don't give up!"

The rest of the day passed without incident. Eric, Cole, Jane, Chase, Kayla, and Sammy all wanted to know how my first training session went, and they were all supportive despite the fact that I pretty much sucked. That's when I realized that maybe I underestimated these guys—that maybe they were nicer than I gave them credit for.

Finally, the last bell rung, and Sammy eagerly followed me to Training Room 5 again for my 3 to 5 session. I still felt slightly fatigued from the previous session, but overall, my muscle sores healed faster than I thought they would. I thought I would have another session learning Rollout with Magic.

To my surprise, it wasn't Magic who was waiting there for me. It was Darren.

"Hey, Amy." He waved at me as he landed down in front of me. "Didn't expect to see me again so soon, huh?"

My jaw must've hit the floor or something, but then I quickly recovered. After all, I was seriously relieved to see that I was going to see him in more places than just the hospital room. But at the same time, I was a bit confused. "Darren? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help you train, remember? The Commander specifically assigned me for this timeslot."

"I mean…what am I gonna learn?"

"Simple." He paused for dramatic effect. "How to fly on ME."

I still stared at him, now 8 times bigger than me instead of twice like I remembered before. "I'm supposed to…? How do I even get on you?"

He laughed. "You can jump really high, you know. But here. Let me help." He reached down a hand for me to jump on, but I was so eager to test out how high I could really jump that I did so with all my might…and landed squarely on his head. "Oh. That'll do. Now hang on."

It was a good thing he did, because suddenly, he twisted and turned and shot right into the air, performing barrel rolls, loops, and all sorts of insane aerial maneuvers. I was freaking out as loudly as the last time he carried me through the air, except this time, I had to hold on to his head without his help at all. Obviously, I was not used to air travel. Good thing those cohesive forces or whatever Mr. Paion said were on my arms were as strong as my arm muscles would let me be.

"That's it! Just keep holding on! Pretend you're holding onto a Pokéxtinction plane and you have to get to the prisoner at all costs! A really crazy Pokéxtinction plane!"

Amazingly enough, he actually continued to pull off those stunts for all of the two hours, and even more amazingly, I was able to…mostly…hold on the whole time. There were breaks so he could let my arms rest, and sometimes he would perform a jerking motion that would take me completely by surprise, and I would lose my grip. Luckily, he would always catch me, although whenever he did, he commented that it was possible for me to float in the air instead of fall. Float, huh? So one time, I tried sucking in air when I fell instead of freaking out (not very easy, mind you!), and amazingly enough, my fall slowed down. "There, now you're getting it!" he said. Oh yeah…I was just like Kirby. Silly of me to forget that Jigglypuff had the same amount of midair jumps as Kirby in Super Smash Bros. (four, in contrast to the other characters, who only had one).

By the time it was over, everyone was cheering on the ground, even though it was just a training session. It wasn't just Sammy who was there—there was Jane, Chase, Kayla, Cole, and Eric. But there were two others next to Eric that I didn't know. One of them was a Lucario about Eric's age (15). The other was a Riolu who looked about 13. Riolu and Lucario. Oh yeah! They were the ones who Darren said could transform immediately instead of waiting a whole week like I had to.

As we descended to the ground, Darren whispered to me, "Just wait until Chris the Charizard comes over. Then it's going to be awesome!"

I gulped. A Charizard, huh? At least he wasn't Fighting-type. But as long as Darren was here, I could easily go through this stuff a thousand times. I wasn't going to let him down.

Eric waved at me. "Yo Amy! Got some friends for you to meet."

I managed to make my way through the rest of my friends and reach him to get a better look at the Riolu and Lucario. The Riolu had blue eyes, a purple scarf tied around her neck, and a locket, and the Lucario had a white bandana tied around his neck, but otherwise they looked just like the ones in the book. "Hi! I'm—"

"Amy, right? I'm Isaac. A friend of Eric's. And this is my apprentice. Her name's Crystal."

Crystal stepped forward to shake my hand and said, "That was so cool! Hey, Master? You think you can train me like that someday?"

Isaac thought for a second. "Actually, hold that thought." He then walked towards Darren, saying, "Yo! Darren! I got a really cool idea!"

"What is it?" he replied, apparently interested.

"Master, wait up!" Crystal ran over to them along with Eric, and I wanted to hear more, but Cole, Jane, Sammy, Chase, and Kayla all swarmed me and wanted to help carry me to the cafeteria for dinner. Eventually, they had to settle for letting me ride on Kayla's back, with a promise that Chase would have a chance next time and then Cole. Sammy and Jane would make sure I didn't fall off with their psychic powers. But I was grateful for their help. My arms were dead tired!

But the best was yet to come. After we parted ways with Jane, Sammy, Chase, and Kayla, who promised they would find a Jacuzzi we could all hang out at after dinner, Eric, Cole, and I went back to our room.

"Yo Amy. Cole and I have been saving a surprise for you."

"What is it?" I asked.

Cole pointed to an odd silver rectangular box with his Vine Whips that I hadn't noticed before. It was a boxed set of Medabots and Digimon DVDs.

I was overwhelmed. DVDs were way more expensive than VHS tapes. And they did this…for me? I watched with fascination as he inserted one of the discs into the DVD player. As Cole turned on the TV, I remembered something important.

I asked, "Wait. Eric. Didn't you say that you watched Dragonball Z at 5:00 on weekdays? Then why…?"

He smiled. "Figured that introducing Isaac and Crystal to you was more important. Okay…here we go!"

I was so happy that I leapt up really high in the air. So high, in fact, that I nearly bonked the ceiling. Cole was able to help me land gently and we sat on his bed to watch the shows I missed. I was so grateful. As it turned out, as I sat between the two of them, I was able to hug them both.

* * *

><p>That was the routine for the next two weeks, although there were no academic classes on Saturdays and Sundays, where Eric, Cole, and I would often go to the video game room to play games on systems old and new. Cole and Eric seemed focused on systems like Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, while I would watch Chase, Kayla, Sammy, and Jane play this Gamecube game called <span>Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles<span>, which looked really cool because you could use Game Boy Advances as controllers. I figured that watching them would be a better idea before deciding to try the game out for myself…although it would be quite a bit harder since I didn't really have any fingers. Instead, I practiced my skills at Dance Dance Revolution, which was extremely hard at first, but eventually, I realized that my super-short feet and almost nonexistent legs were actually an advantage. Oh yeah, and I'm sure there were Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournaments in the general area somewhere.

That was the just weekends, though.

In Math class, with Jane's help, I was finally starting to understand how algebraic equations worked, as well as how they graphed on coordinate planes. Turned out that X could actually stand for any number, and you were supposed to find that number. Jane then explained that the reason everyone was so enthusiastic about Mr. Einbach's class was that he showed how those equations were implemented into the Pokémon games, and just as she said, Mr. Einbach began showing clips of gameplay from Pokémon Black and White and explaining the algebraic equations used to, say, determine the odds of capturing a Pokémon. Suddenly, Math didn't seem so torturous anymore!

Magic was there in the mornings until I had finally mastered the art of detecting where obstacles were and dodging them using Rollout. After that, though, other Pokémon from the PRT seemed to be coming in to give me more challenges. Often, they would challenge me to use Rollout on the track to complete a full mile (four laps) in the fastest time possible. (Sometimes, especially at first, I'd accidentally roll off the track.) Then either while I'm doing that or following the new white line on the ground, they'd shoot long-range attacks at me with the challenge to dodge them. Finally, they'd make me work on my accuracy by having me hit them with Rollout five times in a row without missing. That was the hardest part since I actually became faster with every hit and had a difficult time controlling it. Plus, they were very good at dodging, leading to some frustration at first. Especially with this Grovyle guy named Reggie, who Darren told me about. With his insane speed, dodging skills, and the way he used Energy Ball, I think he was the only one who I couldn't get five hits in a row on.

But luckily, Magic and a few others helped me improve the accuracy of my Thunderbolt until I could shoot it in a straight line or hit all around, whichever was necessary.

My friends had taken to giving me rides to the cafeteria for both lunch and dinner after my intense training sessions, and those that were already there ordered my favorite Pecha Berry dishes for me. They said that it was because PRT agents were a big deal, but I thought it was also because they felt bad about not being there for me during those horrible first weeks. Either way, it didn't matter. I was grateful for all their help.

History ended up being one of my favorites. Ms. Kyurei taught about something new and interesting about our history every day, especially about that alternate dimension she said all the Pokémon escaped to. She said it was very much like the world depicted in a series of games called Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. But also, Chase, Kayla, and Cole were all in that class with me. I didn't have time to borrow new Yotsuba&! books from Kayla anymore, but she promised me that she would make it up to me when my training was over.

In Science, Mr. Paion actually divided the classroom into Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Environmental Science stations, where we could try out each science and pick which one we liked best. Chemistry involved a lot of…mini-explosions…and Physics was basically Math but even harder. I tried out Environmental Science and Biology before finally deciding to stick with Biology, to Sammy's delight. We became lab partners, and it was a good thing, too—she gleefully handled all the nasty dissections for me while I recorded the information. Maybe a little too gleefully.

Oh, and Mr. Paion would often hold lectures where he would introduce the newest pieces of technology, both from the human world and from the tech crew at our base.

Finally, there were Darren's sessions. After I had learned to hold on with my feet so I could "aim my Thunderbolt properly", he brought Chris the Charizard in.

"Oh, just give up, kid. You're not gonna make the PRT," was the first thing he told me. His posture was slumped, and his eyes looked far away, as if he'd given up on almost everything. "Heck, it's a miracle** I** got in."

I was stunned. "A miracle...?" This was a Charizard, and even he...?

"Chris!" Darren admonished. Then he turned to me and said, "Don't listen to him, Amy. I know you can make it in, but only if you do your best. Now chin up, Chris! Apparently, I need to show you how good she really is."

It became intense. They trained me how to jump from one's back to another, and even hang from the girders and/or trapeze swings if necessary. It was terrifying at first, and even when I learned to float by holding my breath, it was still a bit scary. Turned out that all I had to do was feel the speed and direction of the air currents, which they said that my Rollout training prepared me well for. By the time the two weeks were almost over, they allowed Chase to come in (to my surprise, as he wasn't even on the PRT), and I was jumping from all three of their backs, dodging Chris' Flamethrower attacks, Darren's Hammer Arms, and whatever Chase could think of. Also, I got to aim my Thunderbolt properly while in midair, too, even if Chris kept saying I'd never be able to. Annoying guy.

After dinner each day, my friends would meet up with this 15-year-old Piplup girl named Cassie, who would take us to a Jacuzzi near the pool area. The warm, bubbling water was so relaxing. I needed it! (Personally, I was surprised since all Jacuzzi's I went to before my 10th birthday were scorching hot.) My friends also wanted to massage my muscles, but Cassie insisted that she got dibs since she was the one who convinced Headmistress Asula to build a Jacuzzi here.

"Hey, Amy. Have you ever considered joining a club here?" asked Cassie.

I opened my eyes in surprise. "We have clubs here? Like what?"

"You didn't know? We have tons of clubs, such as the drama club, the chess team, sports teams, writing club, art club…tons of stuff. Personally, I'm on the swim team."

I thought for a bit. "The writing and art clubs sound nice, but…"

"Oh, I don't mean right now! I mean, when your training's over. Clubs are what keep us from getting bored. Not just video games. Of course, you won't be able to take as many PRT missions, so think about it some more."

Even so, by the time Cole, Eric, and I got back to Room 301, I would bounce into my bed on the top and fall asleep on the spot. Sometimes, Cole helped me up there with his Vine Whip.

* * *

><p>"Amy! Wake up. Today's the big day." It was Darren. He had opened the door to our room and flipped the lights on.<p>

Cole shouted from below, "DARREN! WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? IT'S SATURDAY!"

Eric shouted, "My eyes! MY EYES!"

Darren strode up to Cole and said, "The big idea is that **she**—" he pointed to me "—will go from Miss Trainee to Miss Rookie if she successfully completes the final trial, which just so happens to be in 30 minutes. Honestly, Cole, how often do we need to repeat this?"

Wow. This was like the night I first moved in, except this time, I had the vantage point of the top bunk bed instead of on the ground next to Darren. I perked up and looked at the clock on the wall in front. 6:30 am. "Guys, guys! I'm okay!" I shouted to them. "Ready whenever you are, Darren. What about Cole and Eric?"

"Oh, sorry, Amy. This final trial of yours is supposed to be a complete secret. No spectators allowed. Hey, at least you won't have any distractions," said Darren. "Hop on."

So I did, and he flew out the door and through the halls all the way to…a completely different training room. Same dirt floor and steel walls, but there were no poles, no training dummies, and definitely no jogging track. Oh yeah, and there were white lines to denote a battle arena.

To my surprise, though, the same Lucario and Riolu were waiting for me in the middle of the room. "Huh? What are Isaac and Crystal doing here?"

"They're who you'll be facing for your **semi-**final trial. Practice, if you will." Darren flew up to them and gestured for me to hop down.

"Hi Amy!" said Crystal, who ran up to me and shook my hand. "I'm SO excited for this! Are you?"

"Y—yeah…" I was, but also really nervous. If this is what it looked like, then this was going to be my first real battle. Isaac was Fighting/Steel-type, and Crystal was pure Fighting. I would be at a major type disadvantage.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine!" said Isaac, patting my head. "Yeah, Darren says it's just practice, but judging from your practice sessions, I'm sure this battle is going to be EPIC." He flashed a confident grin, which only make me more nervous. He probably knew all of my moves, while I didn't know any of his. Or Crystal's, for that matter.

"Let's do our best too, Master!" she said.

He smiled. "I'm counting on you."

We took our positions at the opposite ends of the gym just like I remembered Eric and Ed doing for their battle. I took deep breaths, but I still didn't feel calm. One against two didn't seem like a fair fight, but then again, Patch and Connie never played fair to begin with. Darren flew into their air and announced, "The semi-final match between Team Amy and Team Isaac and Crystal for Trainee Amy's promotion to Rookie is about to begin! Each team will battle until all the members of the other team have fainted. I, Honorary Elite Darren, will act as referee. Pokéumans, ready? Then let's…ROBATTLE!"

For a split-second, I wasn't sure whether to be confused or to geek out. Then I chose the latter option.

"HEY, YEEEEEEEAAAAAH!" I charged straight ahead. Darren's unorthodox word choice evaporated all my doubts and worries instantly. How did he know I liked Medabots? Well, who cares? If I thought about this as a Robattle instead of an actual Pokémon battle (even though the two really aren't that different, essentially), the whole match became more exciting!

Isaac just stood there, holding Crystal back. In fact, he had his eyes closed, and he was charging up something blue—oh wait—AAAAH, IT'S AURA SPHERE, LOOK OUT—!

He shot it right at me and I barely dodged in the nick of time, only to see, out of the corner of my eye, the orb swinging back to follow me from behind. Wait, what did the book say about it…? It never missed? NOOO—OH WAIT, CRYSTAL'S LAUNCHING ONE TOO, YEARRGH—

The explosion knocked me off my feet, but I landed smoothly this time. That was close. I was lucky to dodge at the last second and have both Aura Spheres collide with each other. But I didn't have time to sigh in relief. Isaac leaped through the smoke, and I couldn't get away. I only had time to use Defense Curl just in time to reduce the impact of his Force Palm. Yeowch. That hurt, but it would've been way worse if I didn't use Defense Curl. It was even better that the impact allowed me to bounce just out of reach of Crystal's Force Palm that arrived a split-second later.

"Aww...hi!" Isaac smiled, and completely froze on the spot.

"Master? Master, snap out of it!" shouted Crystal, desperately shaking Isaac's leg.

Yes! There was only a 30% chance of that happening, and certainly a 0% chance if Crystal hit me instead. I didn't waste the opportunity. I concentrated and blasted electricity from my fur at them both and kept it up for as long as I could…which was only about 3 seconds.

"Huh? What?" Isaac blinked. Uh-oh. The electricity must've snapped Isaac out of it sooner than normal. I bounced back away from them, performing another Defense Curl.

"Oh, I see how it is!" snapped Crystal. She ran toward me to smack me with another Force Palm, but I managed to quickly start a Rollout and rolled out of the way, coming around to smack her in the back as she pulled her hand out of the ground.

Isaac shot another Aura Sphere, but I sensed it even more powerfully than the ordinary beam attacks that I had been trained to sense. Wasn't sure why, but I was grateful for it and rolled out of the way. The sphere chased me no matter how often I tried to dodge it, and suddenly, I got the idea that if only I could get Isaac or Crystal between me and it…

Suddenly, Isaac shot a wave of black energy which I realized was Dark Pulse as soon as I bounced in the air over his head. How did he know my plan? It hit me square-on—my momentum made it impossible to dodge—but I wouldn't stop my Rollout. I wasn't going to let that Aura Sphere from behind catch up to me, ever. I would be toast if it did. So I rolled even faster, and faster, and faster, despite the intense pain from Dark Pulse, and right when the sphere was within an inch of my skin, the pulse stopped and I shot ahead like a rocket onto Isaac's head. I bounced off of it just in time as the Aura Sphere hit his face, and the explosion propelled me up in the air. I slammed right into his head again after the smoke cleared and bounced off, turning around. At this point, my Rollout was starting to get a little out of control.

"MASTER! NOOOO!" Huh? What? To my surprise, Isaac collapsed on the ground. He fainted! Oh right, it must have been the Aura Sphere working against his part-Steel-type. Now that only left Crystal.

A very angry Crystal.

"YOU'LL PAY!" she screeched. She used a flurry of Force Palms and Iron Tails that she didn't seem to bother to be aiming properly. I felt really bad to hurt her feelings like that, so I wanted to put her out of her misery as fast as I could. Unfortunately, that made my Rollout juggernaut even sloppier than usual.

I tried to hit her from the back, but she smacked me with Iron Tail, sending me crashing into the wall, but I was determined not to let my combo break. I bounced back even faster than before and smacked her in the head. Or at least, I tried to. I only managed to clip her, which she quickly recovered from and struck me with Iron Tail again as I tried to make that last hit.

Her Iron Tail sent me in the air, nearly all the way to the 200-foot ceiling, and all I could do is roll down helplessly as she charged up a Force Palm—or was that an Aura Sphere?—that would surely hurt a lot worse. Would my Rollout's final strike do enough damage to her hand, or would her attack knock me out first? I wished I could use Thunderbolt. I wanted to, but I would have to cancel my Rollout and surely be hit by Crystal's attack even if I did pull it off, and that would hurt even more. If only…if only I could do both…!

Electricity swirled through my skin as I spun at nearly uncontrollable speeds. I focused my attention on Crystal and discharged it all straight towards her. Her arm froze in place a split-second before I came crashing down on her, with a Rollout at full power, charged with all the electricity I could muster.

A major explosion propelled me out, and once I was clear, I finally uncurled and landed on the ground safely despite the distance and momentum. The dust cleared. Crystal collapsed in the middle of the scorched crater, completely motionless.

"Amy! You just learned a combo attack—Uh, I mean, Team Isaac and Crystal is unable to battle! The winner is, Amy!" Darren gestured exuberantly as he flew down to the ground, unhurt. Obviously, he had been about to dodge all our midair attacks. Or maybe, since he was part-Ground-type…?

"I…I did it. I survived!" I croaked, barely able to stand. Darren handed me an Oran Berry, and I ate it gratefully.

Meanwhile, Isaac and Crystal were waking up. "I knew it…" smiled Isaac. "Good job, Amy! That battle…was EPIC."

Crystal pushed herself off the ground and replied, "Sorry, Master…you missed the REALLY epic part."

Darren helped them both over to the doors and opened them. Apparently, Eric was waiting outside for them. "Yo Isaac, how'd it go?" he asked.

"I'll tell ya on the way, Eric. C'mon, Crystal. We're going to take a nice long rest in the Jacuzzi."

"Yes, Master! Bye, Amy! And thanks for the match! That was SO cool!" With that, they left down the hall. Nice to see that Crystal's anger was only temporary.

Only Darren was left. "Hey Amy, it might be a good idea if you rested here for a bit. I'll let you know when your final trial is here."

"O…okay…thanks for the Oran Berry," I said.

"No problem." Suddenly, he became deathly serious. "Whatever happens, promise me you'll do your best."

"I promise." There's no way I'd ever let him be disappointed in me.

"Good luck…" With that, he left the room and closed the door. Wait. Did I hear the lock click? I waited for about one minute, completely energetic and ready to take on whoever or whatever was for the final trial, when suddenly…

BLAM!

A Machamp and a Weezing blasted a section of the steel wall off and came barging through, forcing me to leap out of the way just as the steel wall section flew my way.

"FUZZBUTT!"

No way…no way, no way, no way…Patch and Connie…how could THEY be here?

"You've left us to rot in that stinkin' detention cell for FOUR WEEKS, you snitch! Are you happy now?"

This can't be happening…how'd they find me? They couldn't have known about my test, could they…?

"Think you're Darren's precious Little Miss Rescue Number 301, don't ya? That JERK, huh?"

I just beat Isaac and Crystal! Why was this happening…?

"Answer us, you **scumbag!**"

So that's how it is, huh? They won't stop? Fine. I won't run away. I won't take this anymore!

Patch leapt forward with a Cross Chop, and I jumped away just in time, shooting him with a well-aimed Thunderbolt. At the same time, Connie unleashed a Smokescreen. This time, though, I was ready. I used Defense Curl, and right as Connie spit out a Sludge Bomb, I went into a Rollout. It was important that I defeat Connie first; otherwise, she'd hit Patch with Toxic again and then he'd be unstoppable.

I successfully rolled through the Smokescreen, bounced up, and smacked Connie. It turned out that Patch actually didn't have a clue where I was in the smoke and needed Connie's assistance, which he apparently no longer had. Connie shot a Sludge Bomb, which I dodged, and hit her again. Three times. Were these guys really as hard as I thought? Did they get worse? Or did I get much, much better?

"So that's the way it's gonna be, huh?" spat Connie. "Well, I'm taking you with me!"

Her body glowed with a bright orange light that I instantly recognized as her charging up an Explosion. I nearly panicked and rolled away, trying to find a hiding place. But there wasn't any. The room only had four steel walls and nothing to hide behind whatsoever. Nothing except…Patch.

I must've been out of my mind.

Right as Connie unleashed the Explosion, I bounced up in front of Patch. Out of my mind, indeed. He punched me straight into the wall, only to be propelled right into the wall by the Explosion, and landed right on me.

"CONNIE…YOU…IDIOT!" he roared as he realized what was happening.

The impacts broke my Rollout combo, leaving me stuck between him, the wall, and a really nasty shockwave of Explosion that was lasting a lot longer than I thought Explosion normally should be. I couldn't curl up in a Defense Curl. I couldn't use Rollout. I didn't even think Thunderbolt would even do anything in this case. It was getting too hard to breathe. I couldn't take this anymore.

I wouldn't.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

I'd never screamed that loudly before in my life, and I'll never know why, but I'm glad I did. Suddenly, Patch wasn't crushing me anymore, and by the time the Explosion finished, Patch slumped to the ground, completely motionless, along with Connie.

The Explosion must have sucked all the air from the room, but I still managed to realize that, for the first time ever, I fought against them…and won.

"AMY!" The doors burst open and air flowed back in, saving me from fainting on the spot. Darren, Magic, Chris, Reggie, some other PRT members, and all my friends poured in, cheering. Darren got to me first, though, and picked me up.

"Wha—huh—wait—what…?" I was completely stunned.

"Oh my gosh! Patch and Connie! SOMEONE GET THOSE JERKS OUT OF HERE!" screeched Sammy. Reggie, Chris, Chase and Kayla were only too happy to help.

"Sorry, Amy…" muttered Darren. "But they WERE the final trial."

"What…?" The color nearly drained from my face.

"We tricked them into coming here. Now before you say anything, let me be the first to tell you that they were just beaten by a 10-year-old girl. You've crushed their pride so badly that they'll never want to bully you again, especially where your friends are concerned. Even though they pretty much blew themselves up, but yeah."

"Plus, you learned how to use Hyper Voice," said Magic. "For you, that was a type of move that training and tests, unfortunately, couldn't teach. You had to believe it was the real thing."

"And I've got a prize for you!" To my surprise, it was the Leavanny from before. Sammy and Jane swooned in delight. "Here! A complimentary accessory. I also repaired your bow." Darren lowered me to the ground long enough for the guy to stick a Pecha Berry-shaped hair clip beneath my right ear and the red bow to my back.

"Aww...how cute!" said Jane and Sammy.

Then Magic pulled out what he was hiding behind his back and said, "And finally, your official PRT badge, to signify that you can now take missions." I took it and saw that it had the letters "PRT", with "Pokéuman Rescue Troop" below it in smaller letters. Below that was my name and species, "Amy the Jigglypuff", and below that, my rank, "Rookie."

"You'll notice that many of us don't actually wear our badges," said Darren, to everyone's laughter. He then lifted me up for everyone to see me, my new presents, and my badge. They all cheered.

Yeah, so Patch and Connie attacked me unfairly again, but this time was different from the others. This time, not only did I beat them fair and square, I beat them after a hard battle with Isaac and Crystal. It didn't matter what I'd have to do now as an official PRT member. I was now confident that I wouldn't have to suffer anymore…that I had friends that liked me the way I was…that I could prove to Darren that I was more than just Rescue Number 301.

It was the proudest moment of my life.

**To be continued…**


	5. My First 51 Missions

**Chapter 5: My First 51 Missions**

As soon as we got back to our room, I sat down to watch more Medabots and Digimon DVD's to celebrate.

Eric, Cole, and some of our friends who followed us in here told me that Headmistress Asula thinks that Patch and Connie had actually interfered with official PRT training procedures, just like I did, and as such, she's going to give them TWO MONTHS of detention this time. What a relief! All I needed to do now was to complete enough missions to reach 1st Class rank by that time, and even then, I was confident that if they would corner me again, it wouldn't be a total slaughter fest…if they could even get past all the friends I had now. Ideally, they would finally change their ways and stop attacking me altogether, but given how even four weeks in detention couldn't set them straight, I seriously doubted they could.

But now that I had finally beaten them…what now? Well, for starters, I wanted to see how far I could go with this PRT job. Being able to see the outside would still be nice. But more importantly…

Darren took me to Headmistress Asula's office after I was done watching TV, and there, she asked to see my schedule, so I handed it to her.

"Well, now, congratulations! It looks like you won't need to take any more PRT training courses," she said, smiling warmly.

Before she could go to work on it, I said, "Wait!"

"Hm? What it it?"

There was still the issue of Gym class. Even after all that training, there was no way I'd ever go back to that torture chamber again. "Can I…uh…still take training courses…in place of, say, Gym? And Battle Class?" I asked, bracing myself for…her anger, maybe.

To my surprise, she smiled again and said, "Well, why didn't you say so?"

I blinked. "Huh? What?"

"Though every student is required to take physical education courses—after all, this IS Pokémon—there's no iron rule saying that you have to take a certain KIND of those courses. Yes, I think you should continue to keep your skills sharp for the PRT, so I'll let you take that. But there are also these other options." She handed me a sheet of paper with all the kinds of Gym-related classes there were. "We prefer to have all students start out with Gym so they find which activities they like best."

There was Dodgeball, all the sports, Rope Climbing, Rock Climbing, all kinds of dances, water sports, lava sports (!), and most intriguingly, Aerobics. "How about Aerobics?" I asked.

She nodded. "Excellent choice."

"YES!" Finally, I was out of Gym and Battle Class for good! I wasn't a big fan of fighting others for sport—I only fought if I had no other choice.

Darren finally spoke up. "It took me a long time for me to figure out I wanted to take the Aerial Maneuvering class."

As the headmistress turned to her computer to adjust my schedule, she said, "By the way, Amy, I've also called you in here for another reason. Care to tell her, Darren?"

"Yes, ma'am!" He saluted. Then he explained to me, "Okay, so you're a Rookie now, right? Well, in order to move up to 2nd Class, you have to complete 20 inside jobs. Those mostly include delivering news and updates to her right here—" He gestured to an empty tray on her desk that could be used to hold letters "—and assisting the tech team by making sure all their equipment is functional. Especially those humanizing rings."

I asked, "Wait. Aren't those things dangerous for me—?"

"Not if you only have it on for a few seconds," he reminded me. "So for the news and updates jobs, you'll want Cameron, the official messenger of this base, to show you how it's done."

As if on cue, the headmistress grabbed the intercom and announced, "Attention, students. This is Headmistress Asula speaking. Will Cameron the Hippopotas please come down to my office?"

"Oh yeah, and one more thing. Every morning, at 7:00 am, you'll want to come to Commander Cuczcoff's office to see which mission he's assigned you. It's right here." Darren pointed to the place on the map in the PRT zone, a room very close to the hall where I came here for the first time. "You start tomorrow morning. I'll fly you there so you know where it is."

Darren then went on to describe how the commander was actually very flexible and could assign me missions according to my schedule, but once I get high-ranked enough to rescue other Pokéumans, I'd pretty much have to be ready at any time of any day. "I manage to rescue most Pokéumans before Pokéxtinction even notices them, or at least while they're in their trucks. But you were strapped to their operating table when I came in, weren't you? One, you lived REALLY far away, even with my Mach speeds." I believed him. Northern Virginia and Long Island, New York were that far. "Two, it was in the middle of the night, so I had to force myself out of bed. Three, and most disturbingly, our sensors didn't detect your transformation until quite late. So you see, the tech team really needs help, too."

Right then, a bipedal Hippopotas—I'm not kidding—walked in through the door. He looked like he was about 15 years old. There were a lot of 15-year-olds here in the base, I've noticed. Must've been the median age of transformation. "I'm here! What is it?" he asked Asula.

"Hello, Cameron. Amy the Jigglypuff here is the newest member of the PRT, and she just reached Rookie rank. Tomorrow morning, when you come here, I would like for you to show her how news, updates, and letters get delivered to me."

He looked confused. "Wait. What? News and updates? Where?"

"They're on the bulletin boards you see around the base. One for each section," she replied. "See, Cameron, all PRT Rookies must complete inside jobs, and this is a very important one you can help her with. She'll follow your route and learn where they are."

"Oh, right! I—I'll do my best, ma'am!"

A printer next to Asula's computer printed out something. "Here, Amy. Your new schedule." I walked up to take it and check it out. Darren and Cameron looked over my shoulder to see it, too.

**Schedule**

Student: Amy  
>Species: Jigglypuff<br>All classes cancelled on weekends.  
><strong>All PRT missions are required.<br>**One five-star notebook and one pencil are required.

**Classes**

Math – Mr. Einbach – 9:00 to 9:55 – Room J205  
>PRT Training – 10:00 to 10:55 – Training Room 5<br>Aerobics – Ms. Corrine – 11:00 to 11:55 – Training Room 7  
>Lunch – 12:00 to 12:55 – Cafeteria<br>Pokémon History – Ms. Kyurei – 1:00 to 1:55 – Room J506  
>Science and Technology – Mr. Paion – 2:00 to 2:55 – Room J309<p>

"Whoa, all my classes are REALLY far away from yours," noted Cameron.

"That makes two of us," muttered Darren.

"That's the third schedule change I've had," I explained. "Hopefully, it's final this time."

Asula said, "Understood? Amy and Cameron, meet in my office at 7:00 tomorrow morning. Commander Cuczcoff will be waiting here, too."

"Yes, ma'am!" This time, all three of us saluted.

The rest of the day was spent at the pool area as a celebration. I got to play for a bit in the kiddie pool, and Cole, Eric, and Cassie convinced me to give the water slides a try. The first two times were scary, but then I realized that I had been missing out on an awesome experience all this time. I went on it so many times I lost count. I was so tired that Cassie helped drag me to the Jacuzzi afterwards.

Finally, Cassie offered to take me to the Registration Office for Extracurricular Activities, where I signed up for the Art Club. It met on weekdays from 8:00 to 9:00 pm.

* * *

><p>The next morning, I woke up promptly at 6:30 am, slid down the ladder of my bunk bed, and left the room right before Darren could open the door and accidentally wake up Eric and Cole.<p>

"Wow. You're early today." He seemed genuinely impressed, for some reason.

"Well, yeah! This is my first mission! I don't want to mess this up!"

He flew me all the way to the commander's office first so I would know how to get there, and then to Headmistress Asula's office, where the commander was waiting. He was an Escavalier who looked like he was in his 50's, or maybe 60's. Darren stood up straight and instantly saluted. "Commander Cuczcoff, sir!" I quickly did the same.

"Welcome back, Darren. So this is the newest rookie. How old are you…ten? You're the youngest member we've ever had. You sure about this?" he said while hovering down to my level. I gulped nervously and said, "Y—yes, sir."

"At ease, rookie. I was just kidding."

The door opened, and Cameron walked in. Then he noticed the commander and asked, "Who's this guy?"

The Escavalier replied, "I'm Lieutenant Sarman Cuczcoff, the commander of the PRT, and you will address me as 'Commander Cuczcoff' or 'Sir'! Is that clear?"

Cameron instantly saluted, "Yes sir!" He was completely petrified.

"Well, now, looks like everyone's all here," said Asula. "Commander, go on ahead."

The Escavalier flew up in front of the three of us and said, "Amy, was it? Welcome to the PRT. It is a very dangerous job, as you should be aware, so we will start you off with missions that won't require you to leave the base. Every morning at 7:00 am, be sure to report to my office for your new mission. Today's mission will be to get all the news and updates to Headmistress Asula, and for that, Cameron will show you. But along the way, you will also be on the lookout for suspicious behavior and stop bullies before they hurt anyone. Any questions?"

"No, sir," I replied.

The commander continued, "And as for you, Darren, some students will be transferring from this base to another, and I want you to escort them there safely. Here are the details." He stabbed a sheet of paper on Asula's desk and handed it to Darren.

"Consider it done, sir," he replied, extremely confidently.

"All right, get to it! Dismissed."

After Cameron picked up a stack of letters from Asula's desk and placed them in his brown bag with "Messenger" written in gold letters on it, he and I walked out into the hallway. Darren flew the other way.

Cameron was shaking, though. "Okay…uh…see how those bulletin boards? I think you have to peel off one of the news articles and place them in your bag…at least, that's what I saw some PRT members doing…Oh wait. Here." He handed me a brown bag, but without any gold letters on it. "You can stick your badge on it instead."

On his delivery route, we came across the hallways where the other dorms were. He was a lot more relaxed now. "See how there are two mailboxes in the wall next to each door? The top one is for letters to other Pokéumans. The bottom one is for letters for Asula. They're the ones you should check. But ONLY if they're lit up. If they're not, then there's nothing inside, so don't bother." There weren't many that were lit up at all, and even fewer bottom ones. But I made sure that all of their contents went safely into my bag.

It looked like the mailboxes were only for sent letters, though. For recipient letters, Cameron would knock on the door and deliver the letter to those inside personally. Many of them thought that I was Cameron's new apprentice or something, but we quickly told them that I was merely a Rookie-ranked PRT member. Some of them became intimidated and backed away on the spot.

"The mere mention of the word PRT is enough to get these guys in line," explained Cameron. "PRT members also enforce the rules, and they're really good at it, too." I believed him. After all, what else did I go through two weeks of hard training for? "So why'd you join them, anyway?"

I told him everything, from how my first day sucked to Patch and Connie beating me up twice to—unfortunately, he was crying by that time, so I had to stop. "I'm sorry!" I gasped, covering my mouth.

"It—it's okay." He wiped away his tears. "I've been bullied before, too. It's NOT cool. And I'm 15. But you're only 10, and a girl, too. I don't know why they'd pick on YOU. If only you didn't have to join the PRT for it to stop…"

"It's fine, really! At least I don't have to take Gym or Battle Class anymore!"

We walked for a bit before coming across Room 301. To my surprise, the bottom mailbox was lit up. "Hey, I wonder what Cole and Eric want to send to Asula!" I ran up to it, opened it, and took it out, placing the sealed letter in my bag.

"Is this your room?" asked Cameron.

"Yeah. 301. As in, I'm Darren's Rescue Number 301, making him an Honorary Elite. What a coincidence, huh?"

"So that's what all the fuss was about…Mine's 87, by the way."

Soon enough, he was able to show me where all the major bulletin boards were, one for each section of the building, from the A section to the J section and all the major community areas. I pulled off a copy of each and every news announcement I could find.

On the way back to Headmistress Asula's office, I had to ask Cameron one more question. "It's so cool how you can walk on two legs. Don't normal Hippopotases walk on four?"

He laughed, "Oh, I have to explain this all the time. You see, when I came here, the headmistress offered me a chance to complete my transformation instantly, just like Riolus and Lucarios. It was a pill made in a Science class, the ONLY one of its kind. But…as a side effect…I became bipedal. Useful, though. Well, we're here." We knocked.

"Come in," said Asula from inside.

We went through the amazingly decorated door and saw her and the commander waiting. I opened my bag and placed all the letters and notices in the empty tray, as she indicated.

"Well done, rookie," said the commander. "That's your first mission successfully completed. I'll be in my office to update your record. But remember; be in my office tomorrow morning at 7:00."

"Yes, sir!" I saluted as he floated out the door.

After that, Cameron and I walked back to the dorms. "Thanks for your all help, Cameron!"

He looked down in embarrassment. "Oh, I'm just the messenger, I didn't really know how—"

"Still…Thanks."

"Heh…no problem, I guess."

We waved goodbye before I went inside my room to find Eric and Cole…at their own computers.

"Huh? What? When did we get another computer?" I asked them.

Cole grinned. "Darren got an extra one for us. To thank us for helping you out. Look, he even got you one, too!" He pointed at the writing desk at the end of the room.

"Whooooaaa…!" I jumped up to examine the cute little thing. It was a laptop computer with a pink D-Power Digivice attached to it via a 9-pin serial port cord. Actually, I was pretty sure the D-Power was red, but was repainted pink. "He knows I like Digimon, too?"

Eric looked over. "Oh yeah. He says he received this stuff as a reward for his mission. Must've been escorting some filthy rich guys who like vintage stuff."

I was so happy I instantly got out some stationery and an envelope and wrote a letter thanking Darren, using big, bold letters. Cole noticed and said, "Oh yeah, we wrote a letter to the headmistress earlier, thanking her for dealing with Patch and Connie. You might've seen it."

I didn't just see it, of course. I delivered it.

* * *

><p>Every morning at 6:30, I'd use Rollout to speed on over to the commander's office with about 5 minutes to spare. Some days, he's order me to deliver news and updates again, and other days, he'd send me to the Tech Room, where a Magnezone named Professor Morgan worked. He was the head of the tech team, which apparently Darren was also part of. The room was filled with all sorts of contraptions in varying stages of completion. There was also—most importantly—the box full of humanizing rings near the entrance.<p>

"See that box, Amy? Your job is to wait by it for PRT members to come in asking for one. Then you take one, put it on yourself, turn it on, and ask how you look. If they say you're okay, you hand it over to them. If not, throw it to me so I can see what the problem is and try another. Got that, ZZZT?" He then coughed and said, "Ugh! I hate it when I do that!"

"Got it, sir!"

"And be quick, too. Another Pokéumans' life could be depending on it. There was one guy who admired himself in the mirror too much and nearly made the rescue team fail their mission. You do not want to do that."

"Yes sir."

"And while no one's here, you can help give me and my teammates whatever tools we need to work on whatever we're working on at the time, ZZZT." He coughed again. "Aw, come on!"

My shifts for these jobs were of varying times, depending on what the commander wanted me to do. It could be anywhere from 7:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night. And when they interfered with classes, the commander personally sent a note to my teacher to let them know. Not that it was necessary, of course.

Finally, there was the Art Club, which was on weekdays from 8:00 to 9:00 in the art room. Its president turned out to be my old Battle Class teacher, Mr. Brimhall. "Amy!" he shouted, delighted to see me for some reason. "Glad to see you here!"

I was surprised. "You're…not mad? That I'm not in your class anymore?"

"Oh, it's okay. You've got PRT business. Besides, I could tell you didn't like to fight unless absolutely necessary. I'm just glad that you're starting to find what you really want to do in life."

I asked him, "Does drawing comics count?"

"Sure, sure! In fact, I can teach you how to make them even **better.**"

Mr. Brimhall taught me how to go beyond contour cartoon lines and see in light and shading, a concept that at first aggravated my brain, but once I got used to it, I found I enjoyed it immensely. I also learned new painting techniques and mediums, and decided that I liked oil paints the best. He even showed me how to digitally color with cool computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop CS5. Of course, all the other art club members were only too enthusiastic to help me along, too, even though I was only ten and couldn't draw nearly as well as many of them.

* * *

><p>This continued for three weeks, during which I managed to successfully stop two bullying incidents and help with 12 PRT missions, three of them involving rescues. Finally, the commander called me into his office and asked me to follow him to the official auditorium of the PRT.<p>

It was the same place where I saw Darren receiving his Honorary Elite promotion, and apparently, something similar was about to happen to me too, because the commander asked me to follow him on stage and stand in the middle of it, holding my badge.

The commander flew to the microphone and said, "Testing, testing…Can I have everyone's attention, please? As we all well know, Amy the Jigglypuff signed up to become one of us five weeks ago and became a Rookie two weeks later. She has just completed her 20th mission. Today, as you can imagine, she is now a member of…2nd Class!"

"WHOOO!" Darren and some other PRT members cheered. I guessed that by the few who did cheer, besides Darren, were all 2nd Class members, and maybe Rookies. Everyone else clapped politely. I guess they figured they'd all been there and done that. And it wasn't like I'd done anything major yet, anyway.

The commander floated up to me and told me to place my badge on the glowing spot on the stage in front of me. I did. It lit up with a light show of some sort, and when it was over, the commander told me to take it off. I looked at it to see that, under my name, it didn't read "Rookie" anymore. It read, "2nd Class."

"Good job, Amy!" said Darren as I left the stage and the room. "You're finally qualified to go outside. Now the real work begins."

My friends, on the other hand, threw a big party for me in Room 301, complete with a Pecha Berry cake they apparently convinced Ms. Yepergo to cook. More water slide-riding for me, too!

* * *

><p>The next morning, I showed up at the commander's office at 7:00 like usual. This time, though, Darren came in too. The two of us stood before the Escavalier, who was hovering above his desk.<p>

"Amy, now that you're a 2nd Class member, you are now authorized to take missions that allow you to leave the base. Darren, you probably know why I called you here, too."

Darren saluted, "At your service, sir!"

Commander Cuczcoff continued, "I want both of you to patrol the area around the base from 21:00 hours to 23:00 hours tonight." I was confused.

"That means 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm," Darren explained.

"Do not let ANY human discover where we are. Keep them away from the main rock entrance and all secret entrances at all costs. Do whatever it takes to keep them away, but whatever you do, DO NOT show yourself to them. They could very well be agents of Pokéxtinction and if they see you, they will kill you. Understand?"

"Understood, sir," we both said at the same time, though I began to feel nervous.

"Oh, and Darren? I suggest that you take Amy to one of the training rooms to teach her how to cause a distraction without blowing her cover. Show her how to do the job properly."

"Yes, sir!"

Suddenly, he pulled me on and we flew all the way to Training Room 17, which had a bunch of trees growing in it as thickly as a forest. "This training room simulates the forests of Long Island. Here, you can practice how to scare away people without causing suspicion."

"How do I do that?" I asked.

"It's different for each Pokémon. Hmm…since you're a Jigglypuff…maybe—Oh, I know! Your Hyper Voice!"

I just stared at him, confused. "What about my Hyper Voice?"

"All you have to do is make it sound dark and scary, instead of light and happy like it usually is. The way yours is now, they're going to know you're a Pokéuman instead of a monster."

I didn't really like where this was going, but I saw his point. "Okay...I'll try…"

"That's the spirit!" He picked up an audio recording device that was on the ground near the entrance. "I'll let you listen and try to reproduce the sounds here. It shouldn't be too hard, since you can adjust the wavelength of your voice easily. Hide in the forest, too, when you do it. And I'll judge whether it's scary enough or not."

I bounced onto a tree branch and asked, "Hey Darren? What did YOU do when you were learning this stuff?"

"Me?" I saw an odd gleam in his eyes, almost as if he was grinning evilly. "Amy, I'm a Ground/Ghost type. And I read all of Darren Shan's books. I'm the master of horror."

"Darren Shan? Is that…?"

"I know. Same first name as me. Freaky, but awesome."

So all the way until 9:00 am and again from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, I practiced making my Hyper Voice sound scary enough like the ones in the tape (some were so scary that I was convinced I'd have nightmares from them), and learned how to bounce from tree branch to tree branch. Darren was a pretty harsh critic, too. Made me wonder how scary Darren Shan's books were. It would often take me 20 tries just to get one horrific shriek right. I went through a lot of glasses of water, too.

Then I had dinner, spent some time with my friends (playing DDR), went to Art Club, and finally, made it to the hallway where the circular ceiling exit was. Darren arrived shortly after and stepped towards the control console on the wall below it.

"Ready, Amy?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." My heart beat with anticipation and nervousness as the full impact of the situation hit me. I was going to leave the base and see the outside world for the first time in seven weeks.

Looking at the console, I studied the button combination Darren pressed and memorized it carefully. I think it was the same combination as the one he used to get me in here in the first place. According to the screen, the rock moved, and we could open it. Darren lifted me up and made me stand on his head. "Remember. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey, but in reverse so normal people can't come in. So twist it right."

I only had to twist it 45 degrees before it moved on its own and vanished into the side, leaving me with a clear-open view of the night sky. It took my breath away. I had never—

"Oh, wait. Let's let them back in, first."

Darren pulled me out of the way just as a 16-year-old Flareon leaped through. "Thanks, Darren! It's all clear out there. And…oh! You're Amy, the new girl!" she said. "Nice to meet you! My name's Ina."

"Ina?" What an odd name.

She giggled and turned to leave. "Good luck out there, you two!"

Darren then shot into the air, forcing me to clamp down on his head, but then slowed down. Yet he continued to soar through the sky, checking the immediate area all around. Ina was right. It looked like everything was all clear.

"Hey, Darren? Didn't you say you were going to check the sky, and I'd check the forest?"

He shrugged. "It's been a long time since you've been outside, right? About seven weeks?"

"Yeah…" I gazed at the night sky. The moon was a very tiny sliver of a crescent, and the stars were everywhere. The cool breeze whipped us all around, but gently, not as harshly as it was when I first came here.

"I thought I'd let you savor the moment. For most Pokéumans…it's never."

For some reason, that struck me as being absolutely horrible, and tears welled up in my eyes. I sniffed. "Never…"

"H—hey, it's okay. Many of us get used to it." But even he sort of saw my point. "…But you know what? I thought joining the PRT would wreck your life…but it didn't. And I'm glad you did." He sighed. "You're the first person I rescued who ever wanted to help me back."

I thought about it. All this time he's rescued people, and not one of them joined the PRT? Yes, it was a dangerous job…but was that why I never saw him again after he brought me here? It must have been. Maybe they never missed him as much as I did.

"Darren?"

"Yeah, Amy?"

"Thanks for being there for me."

* * *

><p>11:00 pm was two hours later than my normal bedtime, but I was okay with it. Commander Cuczcoff would sometimes order us to take a morning shift or even a daytime shift, but the nighttime was his favorite for us, probably because there weren't that many Pokémon with the Insomnia ability on the PRT. Every day, we'd take a shift, and by the time I got used to being outside, Darren would leave me to patrol the forests while he would fly around the island, sometimes as high as the clouds, in order to watch for planes. It was agreed that he would only come to investigate if I started using Hyper Voice.<p>

We kept it up for about four and a half weeks. Things were mostly good. It seemed that no one knew where we were in the forest, and Darren was good at making sure no one else even got close. I think it was near the end of the fourth week when something close to terrifying happened.

I was swinging through the trees like an expert now, dodging owls and other animals of the night, when suddenly, I saw two people stumbling their way through the forest, almost as if they were lost. It was a 20-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl. Okay...it was go time.

I swung to the area near the boulder and shrieked in the deepest, most horrifying manner I could. Darren would surely hear it and start monitoring me.

They froze. Why wouldn't they move? This called for a pull factor as well as a push. I swung as silently as I could to the other direction and made a light, pitiful squeaking noise. Did it work?

Nope. They still didn't move. By now, Darren would be wondering what the heck I was doing. Time for the scare approach again. I swung to the boulder and made that horror shriek again, but a lot harder and more sudden.

That finally got them moving. I chased them with that same noise over and over, making sure they were running in the direction of their house. Then Darren apparently got the idea and decided to join in. He flew into the forest and unleashed some Shadow Punches to speed them up, making them scream in horror all the way home.

"Good job," he said to me. "Not bad for your first try."

I sighed in relief. "Thanks...that was close."

"Heh. Told you that you needed to work on your shouts of terror."

As we flew back, though, I got a funny feeling. It was hard to see those people's faces, but I couldn't shake the strange feeling that...they were my cousins.

Only they looked a lot older. Nah, it couldn't have been them...right?

* * *

><p>Since that was my 50th mission, Commander Cuczcoff promoted me from 2nd Class to 1st Class to even more cheers and applause than before. Then he called us into his office.<p>

"Now that you're a 1st Class member, you are authorized to use a prototype humanizing ring, and can now help Darren rescue Pokéumans from trucks."

Trucks…oh boy. Now the really dangerous work had begun.

"Darren? Given Amy's moveset, I'm appointing her to be your official partner."

Yes! I smiled. Darren asked, "Wait. Her moveset…?"

"Correct, son. She can go all out with Thunderbolt and Hyper Voice without worrying about hurting you. Just so long as you watch for her Rollout," he added with a smirk. "Anyway, the two of you be ready on standby when we detect someone transforming."

* * *

><p>As it turned out, we didn't have to wait long. It was in the middle of the night when my badge woke me up with the commander's voice in my ear. "Amy! We need you and Darren! Now!" The commander had asked that I place my badge in my left ear so that Cole and Eric wouldn't be woken up too.<p>

I hit the ground running and was out the door, leaping into a Rollout. The red bow on my back was a lot more durable than I thought, and didn't shred at all. I got as far as the Tech Room when suddenly, I realized the commander was right in front of it, and stopped my Rollout. Darren arrived mere seconds afterwards.

"We've got a situation in Northern Virginia. Again." I tensed up. What if it was one of my friends? "It's an 11-year-old girl. Another really young one. Amy, you might come in handy. Let's get you your humanizing rings!" I sighed in relief, and then sprung into action.

The commander handed Darren a device with a screen showing a flashing red dot while I ran to the box, took out one of the rings, and quickly tested it out, allowing me to grow back to 4'3". I he PJs on again. "Quick, how do I look?" I asked Darren.

"Just like when I first met you, but without the Jigglypuff ears. Perfect!" I turned it off, turned back into a Jigglypuff, and handed it to him.

The commander floated to the box next to it, picked one up with his lance, and handed it to me. "This is a prototype ring. It has a safety timer so you turn back into a Pokémon after one hour. Use it only if necessary."

I took it and replied, "Yes, sir!"

"Now get out there and bring her here, on the double!"

We were out of the base and flying in the night sky. As soon as Darren reached the cover of the clouds, he picked me off of his head and held me tight with both arms against his chest. "I'm going to go to Mach 3 speed this time, so brace yourself."

I did. It was way faster than the speed he went at the first time I came here.

Finally, it was over, and we were rapidly descending to the ground. I was able to pick out my neighborhood and elementary school for a second, but then found we were flying towards the very rich part of town. In fact, according to Darren's tracking device, the girl lived in that extravagant mansion we were rapidly descending towards, with three floors, a wide-open lawn filled with bush sculptures, and a beautiful gate that enclosed the whole area. It looked like we might be lucky enough to not have to wear any humanizing rings at all.

Then we saw her walk out onto the 3rd floor balcony.

Like the commander said, she looked like she was 11 years old. She had long, waist-length blond hair, a light blue nightgown that went all the way to her socks and slippers, and a hat with a flower on it. Other than her red eyes, I couldn't really tell which Pokémon she was turning into…

Then Darren flew right in front of her, and the resulting wind knocked the hat off her head. There I saw it. There were three green leaves sprouting from the middle of her head. Was she turning into an Oddish? Or maybe a Petilil?

"AAAAH!" she screamed, running back inside.

I leapt off Darren and said, "Wait, wait, we're here to help!"

She froze in place, stunned. "Oh my gosh. A talking Jigglypuff. This has to be a dream."

"It's not a dream! Come with us!" I pulled on her nightgown, but she didn't budge. Her eyes were focused on Darren, terrified.

"Hurry!" he said. "They'll be coming for you any second now!"

"…You're a Golurk, aren't you? That robot ghost guy."

I quickly reassured her, "It's okay! Darren's a really nice guy! He won't hurt you!"

Right then, we heard a stampede of footsteps coming upstairs from the hallway into the room. "Lily? Lily, what's wrong?"

"Mom! Dad! These Pokémon—"

Suddenly, her mom and dad froze in place. Their eyes changed color and they glared at her. "You're one of them."

She blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"You're one of them!" A few maids and butlers came out from behind her mom and dad, too. I froze in place, too. It was way too creepy, the way they suddenly became soulless puppets just like that. They then pulled out some spray cans, and worse yet, her dad pulled out two guns and aimed them right at me and Darren!

Darren took quick action. He smashed the floor with his fist, throwing us all off our feet (which was his way of using Earthquake) and then used Shadow Punch on them all. But more butlers and maids were coming from down the hallways with more spray cans and guns.

"Darren, cover her! I'm gonna use Thunderbolt!" I shouted.

He picked her up and shielded her the same way he did for me, causing her to scream loudly again. But I didn't let it distract me from successfully aiming a Thunderbolt that went straight through their weapons and short-circuited them all, forcing them to stop in momentary confusion. I didn't waste the chance and leapt right into Darren's arms next to Lily. "Darren, get us out of here now!"

Looks like he had the same thoughts, too. He zoomed right into the air, causing Lily to freak out even more. "It's okay, it's okay!" I tried to soothe her nerves. "He won't let go of you. Promise."

I would have said more, but right then, I saw something that tuned out Lily's shrieking completely. It was my house. But it wasn't just my house. For in the window of my room, lit up by my lamp…was my exact clone, just staring out in the distance, almost as if she was waiting for…something…or someone. And I wondered, right then…

Was she waiting for me?

Right then, Darren reached the clouds and could finally slow down. Lily shrieked, "What's going on? Who are you guys, and how did you know about those three leaves on my head?"

I snapped out of it and said, "Okay, let me explain. We're Pokéumans, in other words, people like you who've been turned into Pokémon. I'm Amy, and this is Darren. We're here to rescue you."

"You look like you're turning into a Petilil," said Darren.

"A Petilil…I knew it!" Lily whispered in amazement. "But what happened to my mom and dad? And all our butlers and maids? What were those spray cans? Why'd they suddenly treat me like an intruder?"

I was a little too freaked out about that, so Darren explained, "They're sleeper agents of an evil organization called Pokéxtinction, aimed at killing off those like us. They brainwashed your mom and dad and butlers and maids to knock you out with those gas cans and bring you to their base, where they would genetically fix and kill you."

I remembered that day clearly, so I elaborated on it. "I should know—I've been strapped to their operating table. If it wasn't for Darren, I wouldn't be here today."

She shivered. "S—so where are you guys taking me?"

Darren said, "To our base at Long Island. You'll be given a new life there. It's a long story, but Headmistress Asula will explain it all to you. About how this world isn't what you thought it was. What's your name, anyway?"

"Lily. When did this happen to you guys?"

"On my 10th birthday, which was almost three months ago. Darren was 17, but now he's 23. It usually happens in the teenage years, but in our case, it's a bit random."

"Hey, girls? Just as a heads-up, I'm going to go in Mach 3 speed again. Hang on tight."

Lily began to cry. "I'm scared…What am I supposed to do now?"

I inched over to her and hugged her tightly. "Don't worry, Lily. I'll show you everything."

As we speeded on over to the base like a spaceship going through hyperspace, it reminded me of that time, all the way back then, when Darren rescued me. I didn't have anyone else besides him to rely on, and I had to go through everything myself. I could still remember how horrible those first two weeks ended up being. And here was another girl, just one year older than me, who was nevertheless much more frightened than I ever was. I promised myself that I wouldn't let Lily go through the same horrible things that I did.

But in that moment, I was glad that I had joined the PRT. I was glad that I was able to repay Darren for rescuing me back then.

And most importantly…I was glad to be there for someone who really needed it.

**To be continued…**


	6. Don't You Miss Your Old Life?

**Chapter 6: Don't You Miss Your Old Life?**

We arrived at Long Island, helped Lily enter the base, and led her to Headmistress Asula's office. There, we sat through the same movie, but I allowed her to hug me through the horrifying bits, especially the part where Asula told Lily that she could never see her family again. Then, after Asula handed Lily her schedule and a book (though she really didn't need it since she had apparently played both Pokémon Black and White), she surprised me by saying, "Amy and Darren? Please be dears and bring her to her room. It's…" She paused for an odd moment. "Room 301."

Both our jaws dropped on the floor. (Well, Darren didn't even have a mouth, but you know what I mean.) "She's…my new roommate?" I asked incredulously.

"I am?" she asked.

"What a coincidence." Darren whistled in amazement.

We walked her over to my room, where Darren slid the door open, flicked the lights on, and shouted, "Eric! Cole! Wake up. You have another new roommate."

Cole nearly hit the roof and shouted, "FOR THE LAST TIME, DARREN—!"

"MY EYES! MY EYES!" shouted Eric.

Lily tensed up and backed away a bit. "It's okay," I reassured her. "They're both really nice. They just get cranky when it's past their bedtime. Honest!"

I led her into the room. Eric and Cole finally noticed. "Oh. Hi there. Name's Cole. That guy over there is Eric. What's yours?"

"L—Lily."

I pointed to the bed above Eric and said, "That's the only bed left. Go on, it's all yours."

She climbed up the ladder and sat on it, but didn't look comfortable at all. "Okay…" She pulled up the covers, but she still had that sad look on her face. I got worried. Even so, I climbed up into my own bed. We were now on the same level, but separated by the width of at least the table with the flat-screen TV and two computers below.

"'Night, Amy. And Lily, Eric, and Cole." Darren flipped off the lights and closed the door.

"Finally!" whispered Eric in relief and exasperation.

"I honestly hope that's the last time he does that…" agreed Cole. They then fell asleep again.

Before I fell asleep, I whispered, "…Lily?"

"Yeah, Amy?"

"I'll show you around the base tomorrow morning, so that on Monday, you'll know where to go. How's that sound?"

"That's nice…" Right then, she yawned, and fell asleep. I soon did, too.

* * *

><p>I woke up later that night to a loud crying noise and someone suddenly squeezing me. By reflex, I kicked out, only to regret it instantly.<p>

"OW!" It was Lily.

"Sorry!" I covered my mouth in horror. Then I saw she was okay and calmed down. "Lily? What are you doing in my bed?"

She sniffed. "My mom and dad…and everyone…they…just…"

Then I realized what was up. She was having a nightmare, but couldn't run to her mom and dad as usual since THEY were the scary monsters. "It's okay, Lily. They're not here to hurt you. I won't let them."

"Heh. Look at me. Already 11 years old, and I still have nightmares. Go on. Laugh."

I was horrified by what she just said. "Lily! Anyone would have a nightmare from that. Even I nearly did. I'd never laugh at anyone, especially you, and if anyone does, I'll throttle them."

She seemed to sigh in relief, but was still sad. "How did you deal with this? Not being able to see your family again…and living in this weird place…don't you miss anything?"

"If you give it a chance, you can make friends here, too. There are video games and water slides and accessory shops and art clubs where you can have fun." I sighed. "But honestly, it was really hard for me, especially the first two weeks. No one was there for me, not even Darren, and I got beat up twice. But I promise I won't let that happen to you. Ever."

"Ngh…these beds are too hard…" She hugged me close and asked, "Don't you mind if I stay here?"

"It's okay, Lily…Like I said, I don't want you to have to go through the same things I did."

Right then, though, I began to cry too. I guess I never knew what it was like to feel homesick and have a shoulder to cry on. The closest time was with Darren in the hospital room for the first time, and even then, it wasn't as bad as it was now. This place had a way of making you tougher from those kinds of things, at least at first. But still…

Why Lily? Why someone as fragile as her? Was everyone who was a fan of Pokémon doomed to turn into one and get stuck in hiding like this forever?

* * *

><p>The next morning, in order to start her tour, I looked at her schedule to see where her classes were. To my delight, we had the same Math and Science classes, taught by Mr. Einbach and Mr. Paion, respectively. Eric and Cole came along, too, explaining that they could continue the tour in the event that Commander Cuczcoff needed me for a sudden mission.<p>

As it turned out, he did. I had just finished showing her Mr. Einbach's room when the badge stuck to my Pecha Berry hair clip rang. "Amy! Darren! Get over here, now!"

"Amy? Who was that? Where are you going?" asked Lily, concerned.

"Duty calls. Eric, Cole, you can explain to her." I curled up in a ball and used Rollout to speed on over to the commander's office.

Apparently, it was an infiltration mission, which, according to the commander, Darren was poor at. Yeah, so he was good at scaring people thanks to his being part-Ghost-type, but the fact was…he was 9'2". A little TOO big to be going around stealthily. We had to fly to and infiltrate a small Pokéxtinction outpost in an isolated field in Connecticut somewhere. Once there, we had to copy some files off their main computer and bring it back to the commander, and ideally, do it without anyone seeing us. Due to his height, Darren waited outside as backup while I squeezed in through the air vent and arrived in the boss' office. A few guards were waiting outside, so as quietly as possible, I stuck the hacker USB drive in the computer, waited for the files to download completely, and sped out of there before the boss came back into the room. I was seriously nervous the whole time, but luckily, no one saw us and we flew back without a hitch.

Even after we came back and delivered the USB to the commander, thoughts of Lily's well-being wouldn't get out of my head. So I had to ask him, "Sir? Out of curiosity, would we be able to sign up for…optional missions?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Optional missions? Like what?"

"Like delivering the news to the headmistress, helping out the tech team, patrolling outside the base…those missions I used to do. Can't I do them again?"

His eyes widened, and he looked at Darren. "Wow…most members of your rank consider it beneath themselves to do those jobs again." Then he laughed. "I like you, kid! How about this? Write me a letter about which timeslots you want to do those jobs, and how often. I'll give you special permission to do so. Sound like a deal?"

I smiled in relief. "Yes, sir!"

On our way back, Darren said, "Whoa. Amy, you're just…wow."

"Huh? What? What'd I do?" I asked, worried.

He laughed. "Commander Cuczcoff's right. In fact, no one here ever does jobs that are for lower-ranked members. At least, not me. Thinks it's beneath their dignity. You're the first."

"But they're really important jobs! Is that why there's never anyone doing it? Because of 'dignity'? What is dignity, anyway?"

He laughed even harder, leaving me more confused than ever.

"Sorry…" He finally finished laughing. "It's just that…it's amazing that you'd volunteer for this kind of thing. Why'd you do it, anyway?"

"I thought I could have Lily come along, so I could show her all around tomorrow. And also for anyone else we rescue. I don't want them to go through what I did…"

Deep down, though, I was troubled. Was this really the first time any PRT member volunteered to take jobs below their rank? Was prestige and awards all that they were really after?

As soon as I got back to my room, I wrote down on a piece of stationery that I wanted to deliver news and updates from 3 to 5 in the afternoon every single day of the week. I folded it, stuck it inside an envelope, and slid it inside my room's mailbox, where Cameron came to pick it up and deliver to the commander.

* * *

><p>The next day, I walked with Lily (who'd shrunk a bit and whose skin was turning green) to Math class, where I introduced her to Jane. Mr. Einbach had assigned her to a desk behind mine, to my delight. But when it came time for me to go to PRT Training class, I was worried. Luckily, Lily found a friend in Math who had the same class as she did, and could walk there with her. Aerobics went well, too; Ms. Corrine the Clefable introduced us to Step Aerobics, which, while tiring, wasn't too much worse than what she usually taught us. Eventually, I got to walk Lily to Science class, where I introduced her to Sammy. Turned out that we all liked Biology, and Mr. Paion let us be a team of three.<p>

When class was over, Sammy exclaimed, "Amy, did you hear? They're making a new club! It's the Musical Club! You've gotta join!"

"The Musical Club?" I asked. No, I hadn't heard about it.

"I'm gonna join. I LOVE musicals. And I'd like to have you there—you'd totally rule!"

Lily spoke up. "You like musicals, too? Oh my gosh! I'm SO signing up for that! How do I do it?"

Right before Sammy could explain, I said, "It's on my route to deliver news and stuff to the headmistress. If you come along, I'll show you where it is."

Sammy was surprised. "Wait. Did they drop you two ranks?"

"No, I volunteered." I sighed. "So it really is that rare, huh?"

"Taking missions lower than your rank? Yeah, I never heard of any PRT member who did that."

So I let Lily come along (Sammy had to meet with some of her friends), and I showed her all around the base while I pulled copies of announcements off the major bulletin boards. Sammy was right. They were making a new club. We stopped by the Registration Office for Extracurricular Activities, where I explained to her how to sign up, citing the time I signed up for the Art Club as an example. As she filled out the form to join the Musical Club, I stood there, thinking over Sammy's words, wondering if I should try it too. I asked the Doduo behind the desk if I could cancel a club I was in, and he said that I could do so anytime.

I was sold. I decided to sign up for it too, and give it a try.

"Yay! Thanks, Amy!" exclaimed Lily.

"I sure hope it'll be awesome," I replied.

* * *

><p>After only one week, Lily had shrunk down to my height, and became a complete Petilil. She liked to visit that Leavanny's tailor shop, and had herself decorated in a bouquet of flowers and ribbons to commemorate her transformation. It was also around then that her nightmares stopped, and she could sleep in her own bed without having to run over to mine. (But she did end up coming up with odd excuses to use me as a pillow, sometimes.) She also kept her old nightgown as a comforter since she complained that her bed was a bit hard.<p>

We often rehearsed the song that we were given as an audition piece for the Musical Club. It was the theme song for the first season of Pokémon. To my surprise (though not surprising when I remembered the time I sang that birthday song to myself), I got the pitches right on the very first take, while I had to coach Lily until she could get it right, which was about 10 times.

_"I wanna be, the very best,_  
><em>That no one ever was,<em>  
><em>To catch them is my real test,<em>  
><em>To train them is my cause…"<em>

It drove Eric and Cole nuts, so we had to go to a quiet study room to practice more. We had plenty of time, though—the audition was in three weeks. Meanwhile, I still delivered news and updates to Asula after classes, and went to Art Club from 8 to 9 at night. Not to mention the fact that the commander would sometimes have a random rescue mission from time to time…rescuing Pokéumans from trucks! Darren had this cool combo move he called Shadow Quake where he'd combine Shadow Punch and Earthquake and use it to totally derail the truck and bust the captive out at the same time. Then I'd come in by keeping the guy (or more often, girl) calm and preventing them from freaking out. Apparently, I was a lot better at that than Darren…probably because I was a Jigglypuff. I was always paired with a partner for these jobs. Usually it was Darren, but sometimes it was someone else, like Reggie the Grovyle…especially for stealth missions. Reggie was good at those. Actually, he was good at both.

* * *

><p>The day of the auditions came (it was a Saturday) and we were all in the base's auditorium. Everyone who signed up for the Musical Club was there. It was relatively quick; Pokémon would sing the theme song by themselves and dance to it with moves made up on the spot. As for me? I didn't have stage fright at all. I was determined to show them how good I could be at singing and dancing. After all, I was an expert at DDR by then, and could project my voice to the back of the auditorium. I was practically a shoo-in. Lily barely got in. Surprisingly enough, Chase, Kayla, Sammy, and Jane all got in, too.<p>

At the end, the judges (Ms. Corrine was one of them) surprised us by saying that they already had plans for a major production, and there was going to be another audition in another two weeks for characters. They handed out lists of the characters, and immediately, my friends were talking about playing the parts of the Five Muses, who apparently had the longest song-and-dance roles in the story. Chase would be the Muse of Coolness; Kayla would be the Muse of Toughness; Jane would be the Muse of Beauty; Sammy would be the Muse of Smartness, and they all agreed that I should try to be the Muse of Cuteness. Seeing as how that part was outlined in pink, I thought it was a good idea.

I was walking back to my room, reading over the list, when all of a sudden, Commander Cuczcoff called me over to the official PRT auditorium to promote me from 1st Class to Star Infiltrator instead of Star Rescuer. I didn't argue, mostly because I was well-suited to stealth and couldn't exactly carry an entire human for miles and miles if my life depended on it. There were more cheers than before, but somehow, I got a feeling that some of them were half-hearted. In a bad way.

Immediately after the ceremony, Darren said for me to follow him. We went further into the PRT area to a series of hallways I'd never seen before. They were like the dorm halls, except the walls were made of red crystal instead of blue. Then we stopped by a room labeled "24."

"This—" Darren gestured proudly. "—is my room."

The door opened to reveal a single massive bed and a TV and computer on the opposite side, as well as a desk and drawers behind them. "You don't have any roommates?" I asked.

"Nope. I'm all by myself. This is the kind of room that PRT members get if and only if they become Honorary Elites. Like Reggie. He's in Room 10."

I gasped, "So that means when you rescued me—!"

"—was the day I got this room and ditched my roommates. But we still hang out. It's all good."

I looked at the floor, saddened. Were PRT members all selfish like this? My thoughts were distracted when I saw that on his desk were stacks of books, all by Darren Shan. More precisely, there were 12 Cirque du Freak (otherwise known as The Saga of Darren Shan) books and 10 Demonata books. I walked to it and stared.

"It's okay. You don't have to read them. I know how much you don't like horror."

I turned and said, "But you know all about how I like Medabots and Digimon. Remember? That semi-final trial and the D-Power you got me? But I don't know anything about what you like. It…doesn't seem fair."

He patted my head. "Amy…it's okay. Honestly. Anyway, there's something I want to show you. Watch this."

He stood in front of an empty space of the back wall and pulled on a certain crystal. Suddenly, a section of the wall slid open to reveal a massive hidden passage that he could fit through.

"Whoa!" I gasped.

"Up here. Follow me."

We walked down the tunnel until it turned sharply up, where we had to climb for about the same distance. Finally, Darren moved the rock at the top aside and climbed out. I followed.

We were in a clearing in the middle of the woods. It was night. Now that I think about it, it was almost always night when I went outside, except for missions assigned during the day. "Whooooaa…you had a secret exit all this time?"

"Yeah…" he muttered. "Found it the day I moved in. Never told anyone about it, so don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Okay. But why…?"

"Isn't it obvious? You're gaining ranks faster than anyone in the PRT ever had, and at this rate, you're going to become an Honorary Elite ridiculously soon, and I thought I'd at least show you what you'd get for it."

He sat down on the rock and continued. "See, Amy, the stuff we get as PRT members isn't about selfishness as much as it is motivation for us to risk our lives at these jobs."

I was surprised. It was like another lid had been lifted over my head. But that made me think of another question I realized I'd forgotten to ask. "Hey, Darren? Why'd you join the PRT?"

"Hmm…you could say it's because I'm a Golurk. Apparently, they were programmed to protect people and Pokémon by those who built them. Now that might all be in the past, but I still believe that there's a part of me that absolutely demanded that I help others like this." He stared up in the sky. "The same thing applies to you, Amy."

"It does?"

"Yeah. Not just you. Everyone, too. Keep looking around in your life until you find something you realize you absolutely MUST do, and once you do, devote yourself to it no matter what it takes." He looked at me again. "I think that's the secret to true happiness."

We stared up at the stars for a little while longer as I thought over what he just said. Something I felt that I absolutely must do…I wondered what that was. But I became absolutely determined to find out.

* * *

><p>More and more often, the commander sent me on stealth missions all by myself, with the reasoning that the fewer people who went on them, the greater the odds of success. It was hard to feel comfortable with no backup like Darren, but I also understood what he meant. Within two short weeks, I had progressed from Star Infiltrator to Junior Elite. I was happy to make Darren proud, as usual, but I also felt a greater sense of dread, as I only knew too well that the missions the commander would assign me from then on would be much more difficult.<p>

I was eating lunch that day when a certain Machamp and Weezing I didn't want to see again suddenly came over to my table. I stood up, snatched my food tray away from them, and got into a fighting stance when Connie said, "Amy, wait! We're only here to talk."

She called me by my real name? That was a first. I relaxed a bit, but didn't sit down. "Okay. About what?"

"Why we, um, jumped you like that," said Patch.

"Go on."

Connie took a deep breath (for a second, I was afraid she would belch a Smokescreen again, but that turned out to be not the case). "…I never wanted to be a Pokémon in the first place."

My jaw dropped. "Wha…? I thought everyone here—wait. What does THAT have to do with jumping me?"

"It's a long story." She paused for a bit before continuing. "I mean, honestly. You're lucky you get to turn into a cute little Pokémon like a Jigglypuff. Me? I'm stuck as this stupid, smelly, two-headed, ugly thing that poisons the air everywhere I go. And all because of what? Because I decided to try out this new Pokémon game that Patch got for me? I keep trying to make myself look good, but it's all a lie. No one will ever be my friend. Except Patch, of course." I looked at her and realized that she had on a lot of accessories stuck on from that Leavanny guy's shop, including some makeup. Why hadn't I noticed before?

"Me and Connie got turned into Pokémon at the same time. We went to the same high school and lived in the same neighborhood. But as for me, it was awesome being a Machamp. Ruled in dodgeball and Battle Class. I even thought I could make it all the way to an Honorary Elite."

My eyes widened. "You were on the PRT?"

"Yeah. And Connie. It was awesome being outside, but that still didn't change the fact that we were still Pokémon. Personally, I don't mind being stuck as a Machamp, but—"

"PATCH!" She tackled him on his head. "Personally,** I** mind! So anyway, we were about your rank when we snuck over to where our clones were, just to see what their lives were like. And while I watched mine, I got furious. Why did SHE get an awesome college experience and not me? I'd never been a social failure before, until now! So I…um…"

I gasped as I connected the dots. "Did you kill—?"

"Just Connie. In the end, I left my guy alone. But it was still bad enough for Commander Cuczcoff to fire us both."

"Did you know that there's one other way to go outside?" asked Connie. "You have to beat the Elite Four here."

I nodded. I'd seen the golden door with the numbers "4444" on it and asked Darren about it. But anyway, that explained a lot. Connie could easily go so far to try and kill me because she already succeeded on someone else! I shivered.

"We tried," explained Patch. "We made an awesome combo, but the second guy would almost always get us. The times we actually did get past him, we'd get to the fourth guy, and he'd wipe the floor with us before the battle even got started. So we soon found out that it was completely…impossible. Not that it would've made much difference, even if we succeeded."

"We've been stuck in this dump for five years!" shouted Connie. "And every day is the same. There's nothing new. Sure, it looks cool, but just look around you. It's a prison. And no one likes you here. No matter how hard we tried to be good, they'd still tease you behind your back. So I figured, if everyone thought I was the bad guy…then I'd be the worst bad guy they'd ever see."

Patch stammered, "Actually, it was her idea to pummel you, not mine."

"PATCH!" She smacked him again.

I couldn't understand it. Not very well, anyway.

She continued, "Anyway, we thought that by hurting the youngest, most innocent little girl out there would make Asula put us in detention for so long that she'd kill us. But nooooo…no matter how often she'd use Surf against us, we'd still just faint instead of die! Because apparently, Pokémon can never actually kill each other no matter how hard they try!"

That made even less sense. "You tried to kill yourselves? Why?" I mean, I spent every second of every day trying to stay ALIVE.

"Because I can't stand it anymore! Don't you know? Once you become a Pokémon, there's no turning back. Not once…not ever. Doesn't it seem reasonable that sooner or later, you'd want your old life back?"

I thought for a moment. It was just as Lily said…except that she was getting used to being a Petilil, while Connie…

"Except that you can't. There's no way out."

Then I thought of something that Darren told me a long time ago. I clenched my fist. "Sorry if I misunderstood you guys, and thanks for telling me all that…but still. You could have joined a club or something and found what you really wanted to do."

Connie looked down, crushed. "But…"

"You didn't have to beat me up and ruin my first two weeks here. You forced me into the PRT just to defend myself from jerks like you!"

"But…!"

"And didn't they tell you in 4th grade? When you bully someone, you scar them for life. They'll NEVER forget it. Never."

With that, I took my lunch tray and walked over to where my friends had finally decided to sit, leaving Patch and Connie behind to think about what I just said.

* * *

><p>But in some ways, even into the day after that, I couldn't forget what they said.<p>

Don't I miss my old life…? I really wasn't sure. On one hand, I was glad to be helping my friends out in the musical and helping everyone here with PRT duties, and it was a lot of fun here…but what if Connie was right? What if I get tired of this after five years and want out?

No. I wouldn't throw away my life. Not once…not ever. It was too stupid, and would make everyone sad. Especially Darren.

And I thought about my clone. What was she doing right now? Would she be wishing for a more exciting life than the one she already had? Would she want to see a real Jigglypuff more than ever? Besides, it had been a month and a half since I last saw her…and I hadn't seen my parents since the night before everything changed.

I decided. I would meet with her and ask her what SHE wanted. What she would wish for. Maybe she would help me see the good things about my life, and then I could tell Connie why it was better to live.

That night, I decided to sneak out through the exit in Darren's room. He would be away on a major escort mission that would last all night, so he wouldn't notice a thing. I stuck a plush toy version of myself that I made in Art Club under the covers in my room and ran for Darren's room right before they called for lights out. It was no problem to go through the tunnel, climb up, and squeeze myself through a hole in the dirt under the rock. As soon as I was out, I curled up in a Rollout position and took off.

It also was no problem to find the Interstate road, which Darren said that many PRT members used as a navigation aid. But I had to be careful to not be seen, even though the people were driving in cars late that night and would be focusing on the roads instead of any shadows to the side. As long as I avoided the bright orange spotlights, I was fine. I vaguely remembered how when I was a human, I used to think those road lights were cuter than any other lights I'd seen. But there was no way I could dwell on the cuteness of the lights or whatever. I had a job to do. I rolled faster and faster and faster until I reached the speed of some of the cars, and eventually even faster. The fastest time I ever got on the mile with a Rollout was 30 seconds. I had to reach that speed if I would ever get to my house and back before morning. I always reassured myself that no one would notice a pink ball-shaped creature rolling by at speeds that broke the sound barrier. They might hear an odd noise, but I'd be long gone by then.

Luckily, I remembered enough from my old life to know which exit to turn into that would lead to my house. But I strayed from the roads at this point and used whatever mental navigation I could from my occasional land-based missions with Reggie or Magic. I rolled through the forests until I finally came across my house.

There she was, on the second floor. Lit by my bedroom light, my clone was busy playing something on my Game Boy Color (probably Pokémon Crystal), but every so often, she would refer to the official strategy guide on my desk, and sometimes even look out the window, as if she was waiting for something.

Now for the moment of truth. I climbed up a nearby tree and jumped as far as I could, smacking headfirst into the window. I fell out of sight right as she turned to look. She then opened the window and stared down, trying to see what it was.

She didn't see me at all, even though I held my breath and was trying to keep myself afloat by barely hanging on to an extremely small handhold. Then she decided it was nothing and reached up to close the window. Right then, though, I bounced up and shouted, "Wait!"

She nearly fell into her seat. "A—a Jigglypuff!" she gasped, nearly out of breath. "You can talk?"

I pulled myself up though the window, and tried to get her to calm down. "Yeah, it's me, Jigglypuff. And I can talk." I used the name Jigglypuff because that's what I would call mine if I ever had one. "Hi, Amy. Wanna be my friend?"

Like I expected, she hugged me and squealed, "Jigglypuff! Oh my gosh, you're real! You're actually real! Of course I'll be your friend! I promise I won't let anything hurt you. Not even my mom and dad."

She reminded me so much of the way I was when I didn't know anything about Pokéumans; when I believed that I was supposed to become a Trainer and not a Pokémon when I turned 10. Even if it was a few months late, even if I was Jigglypuff and she was the Trainer, we could still live out our dreams like before. What part of me died these past few months and made me forget about the time I was so carefree like this? If only I could stay with her…

"I...I wish I could be with you too," I whispered, desperately wishing I could make it true.

"You can!" she said. "I'll just have to hide you in my backpack or something. Oh! Even better! I can let you stay in here! You can lock the door so no one can get in except me!"

She was so excited, just like how I would be. But then I remembered everyone at the Pokéumans base, and the reality of my situation cut into my heart. "Amy..."

"What, Jigglypuff?"

"I can't stay here. I've got to go back soon."

I braced myself, but her drastic mood change still hurt. "What? Why?" She hugged me even more tightly. I didn't blame her.

"You really want to know? Okay...put me down. I'll explain."

She placed me on the bed and sat down, listening intently. This was it. I took a deep breath. "Amy...Pokémon are real. But the reason you haven't seen one—why NO ONE has seen one—until today, is because we're all living in hiding. There's this evil organization called Pokéxtinction that wants to kill every one of us, and we're trying to fight back." I left out the part about how all of the Pokémon were actually once humans, because I knew she wouldn't be able to wrap her head around that concept. After all, I had a hard time myself.

"Shouldn't the police do something about this?" she asked, panicking.

"No. This is all a secret. Apparently, they're able to brainwash people and make them forget if they happen to see us."

She began to look around, clearly nervous.

"Don't worry! I've made sure no one followed me. Anyway, I live in one of these bases for us Pokémon, and the problem is...it's in Long Island, New York. Where your cousins live. So I have to get there before morning so I won't get in trouble."

She nodded. "But then why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I came here to find you."

Right then, I heard my mom's stern voice outside the door. "Amy? Get to bed!"

I really wanted to see my mom again, but my clone grabbed me and held me out the window. "Thanks for coming to find me, Jigglypuff! Now go back before you get in trouble!" she whispered. "But you'll come back, right?"

"Yes, I will," I replied, staring her in the eyes. "No matter what."

And I meant it. Even if I would have to sneak out like this every night, even if I had to stay on the PRT, stop bullies, and put myself in danger to save new Pokeumans, I would always come back for her. No matter what anyone else said.

**To be continued…**


	7. I'll Never Be Like Them

**Chapter 7: I'll Never Be Like Them**

Silly me. Of course the plushie trick would never work on Lily, Eric, and Cole.

At least I remembered to leave a note, so they understood where I went. They were all waiting for me the next morning (I got there right at 7:20 am), and I told them all about how it went, including how I promised to meet her every night, but not before making them swear that they wouldn't tell anyone.

But that still didn't change the fact that I would now have to take on missions that were harder than ever before, though not quite as hard as the ones Darren and Reggie were taking. That very morning during Math class, as if to punish me for sneaking out without permission, I had to go rescue a Flaaffy from a rogue Pokéxtinction hideout. Things went horribly wrong, and I had the side of my head and the inside of my mouth burned badly, and Darren had to save us both. What if stuff like that happened to me again? I shivered.

So I quickly wrote a letter to Commander Cuczcoff saying that in addition to delivering news and updates to Asula, I also wanted to help the Tech Team in the morning and patrol around the base in the evening. I would've liked to help Asula more, but she only needed once-a-day updates; no more. It would still help show new Pokéumans around; I took every one I rescued with me on those tours.

I had just mailed it and finished classes for the day when Lily reminded me that after dinner, the official auditions for individual characters in the musical had begun. Nuts. Though I had time to rehearse, I wouldn't be able to make it to the weekday practices; just the weekends. There was no guarantee they would accept me when my schedule was going to get a lot more jam-packed.

Then there was Art Club, of course. It was one of the many respites during the day where I could relax and forget about the realities of the PRT. There was no way I would cancel that, and besides, I was starting to find that improving my art skills was getting quite addicting.

Finally, it was time to go out and meet my clone again. I didn't want her to worry that she would never see me again; I knew too well how distraught I would be if a Jigglypuff friend of mine came once and never came back. To my surprise, Eric, Cole, and Lily all agreed to help make sure that no one would see me leave through Darren's room, and even made up various cover stories for me (such as I was already in my room). I was able to use Rollout there without incident, but I wished that I could have a teleportation device or something. Or better yet, a Pokémon who could use Teleport. Nah, who was I kidding?

I knocked on the window. "Amy? It's me, Jigglypuff."

She opened it, lifted me into the room, and hugged me. "You came back!" she whispered, but clearly excited and relieved. "Aren't you going to get in trouble for this?"

"As long as I go back before sunrise. And don't worry. I told my roommates about this, and they said they would help me visit you as often as I can. Maybe even every night!"

"Yay! Thank you!" Then she set me down on the bed and asked, "Wait. Roommates?"

I proceeded to tell her about my life in the Long Island Pokéumans Base, except that I called it the Long Island Pokémon Base. I told her about my classes, the clubs I was in, my friends, and even the PRT—which I renamed the Pokémon Rescue Troop. I told her it was my job to help rescue Pokémon from the Pokéxtinction organization, and I was on a mission when I found her.

"So you're up against humans with guns and stuff?" she asked, clearly worried. "Aren't you scared?"

"Of course I'm scared!" I whispered. "But I put up with it because I like helping people, and also…if I didn't them…I couldn't come out here to be with you."

We sat there, silent for a moment.

"I've really gotta go now, Amy. See you tomorrow, I hope."

"Okay. Thanks for coming, Jigglypuff. You're really brave."

She opened the window for me, and I jumped out, but not before waving goodbye.

* * *

><p>The weeks passed, and it quickly became clear that I wouldn't be able to keep meeting her every single consecutive night. For the first time ever, I began to feel the negative effects of getting by with too little sleep. My head began to feel fuzzy; I kept tripping on stuff that I normally would never have tripped on (such as a crack in the floor); and my focus declined so much that I started involuntarily sleeping in classes. I was lucky there were no tests, grades, or whatever, but sometimes, my friends would tell me about stuff that I wished I was awake to have listened to.<p>

Luckily, my clone was much more forgiving of me skipping nights to visit her. It seemed that after the first two or three visits, she had gotten over her fear of never seeing me again and could count on me coming back. Once every two nights, I would stay in Room 301 at the base to catch up on some much needed sleep.

I continued to do my basic missions dutifully every day, delivering updates to Asula, helping the new Pokéumans find their way around, and stopping bullies before they could permanently scar any other innocent students. I varied my route every day so they couldn't predict which hallway I'd go down next. Most of the time, the bullies would back down when I challenged them, but there were certain few that I actually had to fight; in particular, a certain Electabuzz, Skuntank, and Weavile that called themselves the MSN Gang. In both times I fought them I barely got out of it alive, though I quickly found that their fighting style was very reckless, and that if I kept my cool, I could easily defeat them. I had to thank Reggie the Grovyle for giving me that tip.

Now and again, I would be called upon for new missions. Luckily, none of them came close to that nearly-botched mission where I had to rescue that Flaaffy. Before I knew it, I was called upon for an official ceremony by Commander Cuczcoff, where I received the rank of Elite to major amounts of cheers and applause. That was the rank that apparently, many PRT members stayed on.

"Good job, Amy!" said Darren, patting me on the back. "If you complete 150 more missions, you'll be an Honorary Elite just like me! It's so sweet."

"Wait, so that mean…"

"That means you'll get your own room, just like me and Reggie. We'll all be in the same hallway!"

Reggie smiled. "I'm quite looking forward to it, too."

And so was I. I realized right then that if I got my own room, just like theirs…I'd be able to dig a hole to the surface and can leave to visit my clone anytime I want without having to go through Darren's room all the time! I might have had to do twice the number of missions I already did, but then more than ever, I became determined become an Honorary Elite.

During the celebration, though, I noticed something stark. There was a certain section of PRT members in the auditorium that didn't cheer and applaud at all, and what was more, many of them were of lower ranks. Which was weird, considering how the higher ranked I went, the more cheers and applause I was supposed to receive, especially from the higher ranks…right? But most disturbingly…

They had the same look in their eyes as Patch and Connie did back then, except they were much more murderous.

* * *

><p>I lost track of the number of missions I had completed.<p>

Given how busy I was with classes, clubs, missions, and occasional visits to see my clone, I completely lost track of time, too. What I do know is that Lily, Sammy, Chase, Kayla, Jane and all my friends had neared the completion of practicing for that new musical. I had already memorized all the lines and dance moves, and all we had to do were dress rehearsals for our debut performance, which was coming up fast.

Mr. Brimhall the Smeargle said he was also impressed by how quickly I learned to analyze light and shadows and incorporate it into my work, but it also helped that all the stealth missions the commander sent me on made me extremely observant of just tiny details.

As for all my classes, there were a few times where the teachers decided to go over some review material for the new students (many of them ones I've rescued) to catch up, so I slept through those literally.

And then came the day a certain three PRT members—with those same murderous looks in their eyes—cornered me.

I had just completed a hard day of missions, clubs, and classes, and was looking forward to sleeping in all day Saturday, when this Manectric, Excadrill, and Gastly suddenly blocked me in the hall. I recognized them from the PRT…I think their names were Steve, Spike, and Sam?

"Huh? What wro—?" I stopped short as I realized they wouldn't let me pass.

"So," growled Steve the Manectric. "You're the little hotshot rookie everyone's talking about."

"Wha…?"

"There no way you could have gotten to be an Elite so quickly," spat Spike the Excadrill. "I think you messed around with the commander."

I argued, "No, I just volunteered to take the missions that apparently no one else—!"

"Excuses, excuses, excuses. It's not fair that we had to work for years to climb one stinking rank, while you get all the way to Elite in less than a year, don't you think?" hissed Sam the Gastly. It still freaked me out that this gas ball Pokémon dude could be over 5 feet tall.

As they cracked their knuckles (or at least, only Spike was able to), I glared. "Oh, I see how it is." And I really did. It was just like the time when Patch and Connie cornered me in the hallways like this. No one else was around, and I was on my own, just like now. But unlike that time, I was ready.

"I'm on the PRT to help people never go through what I had to. I'm not on it for dignity or prestige or useless crap like that! I'll never be like you!" I growled.

I curled into a Rollout, electrified myself, and aimed right at them, preparing to use the Electric Screwdriver right through them and all the way back to my room.

But Spike stopped me with a Metal Claw and I bounced off a wall, only to aim for Sam instead. He phased through the ceiling and I bounced off another wall, and aimed at Steve. He kept dodging, but after the fifth dodge I faked out and managed to hit him in the jaw. Right then, to my horror, it occurred to me that all the electricity from my Electric Screwdriver was being absorbed into him.

Sure enough, he blasted all that electricity right back at me with a Discharge. It HURT, and I was forced to stop my combo. Naturally, it didn't hurt Spike at all. I was really lucky that Sam hadn't phased through any walls when he got hit by it too.

"Sam, you idiot!" shouted Steve.

"Dude, you need to work on your timing…" he replied.

But I couldn't hear more of their banter because right then, Spike shot out from under me with his drill. I didn't even have time to scream before he smashed me straight into the ceiling.

As I fell, a set of powerful teeth clamped onto my face. Must've been Steve leaping up to snag me with Chomp. Gravity powered him to slam me into the ground. Truthfully, I was amazed I was still alive after all this abuse.

I remembered the time a dog chomped on my face. I was really young, and at one of my relatives' house, and ever since that day, I've hated dogs. Ha. I thought I had it bad back then. I had no idea.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" Luckily, I was able to make my shout into a Hyper Voice, blasting him off me and into Spike, who was preparing to use Bulldoze on me from above. I used Hyper Voice on him too, eventually shouting hard enough to smash them both into the wall on top of Sam.

I suppose I could have ran away right then. But I was sick and tired of always running away and never actually doing anything. And I knew these types of guys all too well. They wouldn't let this go just because I beat them. They would keep coming after me, and no amount of detention in Asula's office would change that, just like Patch and Connie. In fact, Patch and Connie were on the PRT too before they got kicked out…

There was only one way I could stop them for good. I had to end this, right here, right now.

"RAAAAAGH!" I shouted a Hyper Voice to smash them into the wall even further, and I charged, curling myself into an electrified ball. I spun at them and smashed them over and over and over again, using the wall as a springboard to keep hitting them. I even smashed Steve's Lightningrod receptor on his head so that it wouldn't be able to absorb my electricity anymore, and while the electricity didn't affect Spike, I knew my Rollouts did. Sam was susceptible to everything.

"Amy…"

I couldn't focus on the voice now. I had a job to do.

"Amy…!"

It was now or never. I couldn't stop now.

"Stop it this INSTANT!"

Without warning, a flood of water crashed upon me, and I nearly choked from the lack of air. It washed me a long way down the hall before it finally receded and I could breathe again. I looked ahead and saw where the Surf attack came from: Headmistress Asula.

Someone else was behind me too, sobbing. It was Lily. I looked back and forth, completely disoriented.

"I had to stop you…" explained Asula. "Your friend couldn't stand to see you like that, and personally, neither could I. I shall deal with these troublemakers personally. Don't worry."

Lily choked, "Amy…" She was so distraught, she had trouble talking.

"Lily? What's wrong? What happened to you?" I asked, wondering who would give her such a hard time like that while I was away.

"N—nothing…!" She sniffed. "It's just…you were too scary…"

I was taken aback. "I'm sorry…come on, let's get back to our room…"

Right then, Darren came and landed right in front of me. "Amy? Man, I'm sorry! I can't believe something like this would—!"

"Took you long enough, Darren!" I spat at him and gave him a dark look. How come no one was ever there to help me when guys like these cornered me?

"WAAAAAH!" Lily cried, running away.

Darren let her go, and then picked me up. "Look…can we come to my room for a minute? You can explain everything. Jeez, you look bad. I can help."

It seemed like I was operating on pure anger all that time. Now that it was gone, I just went limp in Darren's arms as the pain from the battle really hit me. Bite marks, drill marks…wow, Darren was right. I must have looked like a wreck.

I don't remember if I blacked out from the pain or not, or how long I was out, but the next thing I knew, I was in Darren's room in the big bed that was normally for him, and I just saw a Chansey and an Audino nurse just walk out of the room.

Darren looked up. "You'll be okay, Amy. Just hang on."

I groaned. The pain wasn't as bad as before, but I still felt really sore. At least the multitude of bandages should help speed up the healing.

"Still, I heard from Asula. Don't worry. I'm sure Commander Cuczcoff will fire them all." He rested his arms on the bed. "I never saw you that way before, though. What exactly happened?"

So I cleared my throat and told him everything about how those guys were apparently jealous that I became Elite-ranked in less than a year, while it took them years just to gain one rank. In addition, they were like Patch and Connie in that they would never leave me alone…

"I knew it…" he said. "This really IS wrecking your life, isn't it?"

Suddenly, tears came to my eyes. I didn't want him to come to that conclusion that harshly. "NO!" I shouted. "It's just that…I want to do the right thing for everyone…and not be like them, having to worry about dignity or…"

"Amy…" His voice grew calmer. "I know it's not fair, but just doing the right thing over and over again isn't enough. You also have to consider what makes you happy. Now think about this. Does making yourself do all these missions every day make you happy? Or are you only doing it because you think that's what we expect you to do?"

I was shocked. No one put it that way before.

"If you think it's what we expect, that's not true. Sure, we're on the PRT to help people…but if you keep ignoring what makes you yourself happy…I don't know how to put this nicely, but…you'll kill yourself. I'm on the PRT because doing this stuff makes me happy. But for you…it doesn't. Trust me. I notice these things."

"So then what…should I do…?"

"You can always quit the PRT whenever you want, you know. No one will hold it against you."

I could quit whenever I want? That was new. Once upon a time, if only I'd found out earlier, I would have quit the moment I reached 1st Class Rank. But now…if I do…they wouldn't let me go outside anymore, would they? I wouldn't be able to see my clone anymore, would I?

I looked at the hidden entrance to the outside world on the back wall. I couldn't tell Darren. I couldn't tell anyone. Humans and Pokémon were never supposed to be able to get along, but me and my clone were able to. They would never understand.

"I just…want to help people…without getting hurt so badly…" I hiccupped.

"Then how about this? I'll let the commander know, and he'll only send you on low-risk missions. Everyone else, including Reggie and me, can handle the high-rank ones. We can also cancel some of these optional missions you've got going on. That way, you can get more sleep and be less stressed out. What do you think?"

Stress…I've always thought of it as something that only teenagers and adults got. I never knew kids my age could get it, too. I wanted it to stop. And I definitely didn't want to become something I wasn't. There was only one choice.

I nodded. "Thanks…Darren…"

He always helped me out like this. Adults could really see things that even I couldn't. Where would I be without his help?

* * *

><p>The next day, we met with Commander Cuczcoff and arranged everything as planned. He completely understood my situation, and even said that he knew this would happen someday considering my age, and more importantly, my personality. I wouldn't patrol outside the base anymore, and he'd get other rookies to help deliver updates every other day. I could just stick with helping the Tech Team out, which made me feel much better, as they wouldn't have to deal with all these dangerous situations I was normally in.<p>

Throughout the week, I could feel the results. I was able to get a full night's rest every night, and my focus in my classes was back to normal. I reassured Lily that I would be okay, and could make it to every rehearsal for our musical. I was so confident that this would be the most awesome performance yet!

I had to tell my clone. At the end of the week, I snuck out through Darren's room as usual. He wasn't there, and I didn't have to sneak past him, so I figured he must be on another all-night mission. That guy had an odd sleep pattern, and yet he never seemed to suffer any consequences…I guessed that was what adults were like, after all.

I sat on the bed after my clone opened the window for me. "Amy…" I took a deep breath. "I nearly killed someone last week."

She gasped.

As I explained everything that happened, I realized what Darren meant about the PRT wrecking my life. The constant danger of it all had been crippling my personality, and just from the contrast between me and my clone, I could tell just how much I've changed from the moment I've joined them…from the moment I was taken to the Long Island base itself. If it weren't for my clone, I would have completely lost track of where I used to be. Was this really what Pokémon was about? Fighting and death? It seemed so much more harmless in the video games…And right then, I decided.

I didn't want to turn into a heartless killer. I wanted to go back to the way I used to be. And there was only one way I could best make it happen.

"Amy…I don't want to be like them anymore! I really wish I could stay here with you!"

"It's okay, Jigglypuff…" she whispered, hugging me. "You can, whenever you want! Just let me know when you're ready."

I wiped my tears as I figured it out. It was so easy. "Next week," I replied with confidence. "My musical performance will be next week, and I'll need that time to bring everything I need with me. After that, I can run away and stay here for good!"

"I wish I could see your performance…" she sighed. "I want to hear how you sing. I'm sure I won't fall asleep!"

Heh. Just like her…or me, as I used to be. I smiled. "I know. But they don't trust humans. They'd never let you in. Don't worry. I'll tell you how it went."

"I know. I'll see you then. And I'll get everything ready for you!" She was so excited. "Make it the best performance ever, Jigglypuff!"

I managed to get back to the base without incident, as usual, completely excited. Finally…I would finally leave this place and be with her, just like I've always wanted! Even if I was the Jigglypuff instead of the trainer. Even if I would never see Eric, Cole, Lily, Sammy, Chase, Kayla, and Jane and all my other friends again. It would all be so worth it. All I had to do was survive this week and find some way to leave without causing them too much panic.

I moved the rock aside, jumped into the hole, and moved the rock back in place. I ran down the dirt hall, my mind already buzzing with possibilities. I hadn't had this much hope and happiness in a very long time…probably maybe not since the night before my 10th birthday!

I opened the secret door to Darren's room, preparing to dash across it, when all of a sudden, the main door opened right in front of me…and Darren himself came in.

"Amy?" he asked.

My heart froze. He had come back earlier than I thought, at the worst possible moment.

He glared. "What were you doing out there?"

**To be continued…**


	8. Don't Leave Me, Please

**Chapter 8: Don't Leave Me, Please…**

"Darren…!"

He strode towards me, still angry. "You aren't another spy for Pokéxtinction, are you?"

"What? NO! I was just visiting my clone—!" I then covered my mouth. What was I thinking, telling him about that?

"Your clone…?"

"N—no wait, I mean…" I tried to think of a cover story, but nothing was coming to mind. Why else would I be out there when we made it clear that I wouldn't be outside patrolling the base anymore? I could say I was sent on a secret mission, but he'd want details, and would probably check with Commander Cuczcoff, too. But beyond that…why did he suddenly think I was a spy?

"You mean WHAT?" He grabbed me and held me up to eye level. I shut my eyes tightly. I didn't want to look into his, which were surely blazing red in a horrific manner.

"Okay! Okay! I was visiting her! But she's not working for Pokéxtinction at all!" I shouted. I was worried, though. What if she was? But that was impossible…right?

"JUST visiting her?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm not a spy! I'm serious!"

He put me down on the bed, gently. Just as soon as his anger flared, it was gone. "Sorry about that, Amy. We just had a spy in here recently."

So that was why. "We did? What happened?"

"Some Lopunny girl named Mindy. We thought she barely escaped from the main Pokéxtinction hideout, and she told us that the real spy was this Lucario guy named Brandon, but as it turned out, Brandon was innocent, and Mindy was the spy all along. Plus, she stole some important information from Asula's office, and to make matters worse, she's Mr. X's niece. Everyone's in a panic about it, and they're all worried that there may be more spies running about."

Yikes. Did I really miss that much while I was away?

"So that's what's been happening. Now what about you? Didn't you live in Virginia? How did you get down there and back so fast without me to help you?"

I looked down. "…I used Rollout. Like, really fast, and I only stayed there for a few minutes."

"But…why?"

"…She's been helping me remind me of the way I used to be. Before I joined the PRT, before I went on these missions…even before the day I learned that Pokémon were real. Darren, when I said Jigglypuff was my favorite Pokémon, I…I didn't expect to turn INTO one! I wanted one as a friend! And me being there for her all this time, and her being there for me…"

"Wait. How long have you been visiting her?"

"…For a few months now." I wondered if I should tell him our plans, then decided that maybe not yet. Maybe I should explain something else. "She was actually why I didn't quit the PRT when you told me I could. Okay, if I knew I could quit, I would have done so after rescuing Lily…but then I saw her, and I thought, maybe, just maybe…so the night after Patch and Connie told me they wanted to kill themselves, I wanted to go see her just so I could tell them why it was better for them to live. And it turns out that…I'd actually rather be with her instead! Even if I'd have to stay in that room all the time, it would be better…than constantly having to almost get killed everywhere I go…"

He nodded. "I get it…"

"You do?"

"Yeah…it's completely understandable why someone like you would want your old life back."

"Then can you keep it a secret?"

He thought hard. "…I think it should be fine. As long as she doesn't tell anyone about you, you'd be okay. And I don't see any reason to tell the commander, either."

I took a deep breath. "…We also made plans. Can you keep this a secret, too?"

"I'm listening. What kind of plans?"

"I…I told her about how I couldn't take this anymore, and…that the day after my musical performance, I…I would run away and live with her." I shut my eyes. Great. If he disapproved of that plan, I'd be done for.

After what seemed like the longest time, Darren finally said, "…You'd still have to watch out for Pokéxtinction. And it won't be easy to explain to everyone here. If you suddenly disappear, we would get worried. Maybe you were a spy, or maybe…"

"NO!" I shouted. I was upset. I didn't want anyone to think badly of me. "You have to tell them the truth!"

"I suppose I could do that…" He sighed. "I just want you to know that I'll really miss you. I thought that maybe, against all odds, you'd prove me wrong and become an Honorary Elite, just like me. Your new room could be next to mine and Reggie's too. I could teach you all sorts of new strategies for tackling any kind of mission at all, and maybe I could see more of your musical performances…"

"I'm sorry…" I sniffed. Now it hurt me to have him feel bad like that.

"Never thought my Rescue Number 301 could ever turn out this way…" He patted me on the head. "But you know what? You should do what makes you happy. I'm glad you're taking my advice. You always have…"

Then I noticed something in his eyes. Why were they blue? Was he…?

"You know…I was an only child, too. I thought it was cool, yet at the same time, not so cool, especially since my mom and dad made me do all the chores…" He sniffed. "But if I could choose my own life…I'd wish you were my little sister. Even if we're, like, 13 years apart. Then maybe it wouldn't have taken so long for me to make friends here, because I wouldn't have been so antisocial…after all, that was why it took me so long to become an Honorary Elite…"

He was starting to make ME cry, too. Why? Why, on the very night I promised my clone I would run away to live with her, did Darren have to come into the picture, too? "You would have been an awesome big brother, and I wish I could've helped you too…I'm so sorry…!"

"It—it's okay…" he said, but he was clearly breaking up. He then whispered, but tried to not let me hear, "Don't leave me, please…"

But I heard it. And that made me lose it, too. I shook and sobbed, and tried to comfort him, but that was impossible. In reality, all I could do was try to comfort my guilty conscience.

He helped fly me back to Room 301, and I had dried my tears by then, but shortly after he left, I still couldn't help but feel bad that I was going to leave him heartbroken like that. I couldn't help but grab my pillow and cry into it again.

Eric, Cole, and Lily all noticed. Lily climbed up the ladder to my bed and asked, "Amy…what's wrong?"

I hiccupped, and explained, "Lily…I…I couldn't…save his sister…" before breaking down into my pillow again. It hurt me to lie to my friends like that, but I didn't want to tell them the truth and make me feel even guiltier for hurting them, too. Besides, I had heard of tragic stories where PRT members tried to rescue siblings who had begun to transform at the same time, but failed to rescue them both, and refused to go back despite one sibling's protests. Those stories always made me mad at my fellow PRT members, and were another reason why I didn't want to be anything like them. And it was true—if I ever had to rescue siblings, I always made sure I got them all. Darren was useful as a partner in those situations.

Eric, Cole, and Lily understood that this was PRT business, so they didn't pry further. My lie also had the benefit of a half-truth that felt very, very real to me: I pretended that the person I rescued was like Darren, and his little sister, which for the first time I failed to also rescue, was a girl very much like…me.

* * *

><p>I thought I couldn't wait for the week to be over, but my conversation with Darren suddenly threw a wrench into the whole thing. I was excited to be getting out of here for good, sad that I'd be leaving Darren forever, slightly nervous about how the musical would turn out, and really nervous that we wouldn't have it at all on account of these emergency training sessions that were being set up for us to fight against a massive army from Pokéxtinction that was coming this way thanks to that Mindy spy.<p>

I couldn't wait for the week to be over, and at the same time, I wished it would never end. This was my last chance to be with all my friends, to play on the water slides and relax in the Jacuzzi, to eat those delicious Pecha Berry all-in-one meals at the cafeteria…the list went on and on, but I lived every day to the fullest by doing all those and more. I even talked with Darren a few more times, and he suggested that the night before the play, he would take me to my clone's house so he could see for himself whether it was a good place for me to hide (and find out if my clone really was a spy or not).

But I wanted to do this. On one hand, I felt bad that I would be leaving all my friends to train to fight this coming army, yet at the same time, I knew I had way more than my fair share of life-or-death experiences. If I stayed, I knew there was no guarantee I would come out of this war alive.

Finally, on the appointed night, I arrived in Darren's room. He was sitting on the bed, waiting for me. "You ready?" he asked.

"Yeah…" I replied, knowing full well that this would be the second-to-last time I would ever be flying with him again. I remembered how freaked out I was when he first rescued me from Pokéxtinction, and we flew into the air. And I also remembered how my intense training allowed me to get used to his flying style. It sucked…but this was the way it had to be.

We exited through the secret passage, flew into the air, and arrived at my house in only a few minutes, unlike the hours it would have taken me to use Rollout all the way there.

My face fell. "Ugh, if only I told you about this much earlier…"

"I know," he consoled me. "But better late than never, right?"

I only had to give him a few directions. It was in the general area as the time we rescued Lily, yet he still remembered that operation perfectly.

He flew down to a hover right below my clone's bedroom window. I knocked. "Amy? You there? It's me, Jigglypuff! And I brought Darren! He's here to make sure that this is a good spot for me to not be found by Pokéxtinction."

She opened the window and lifted me into the room. "Hi, Jigglypuff! I didn't think you'd come back this early…and what? You brought someone?"

Darren flew up and waved at her through the window. "Hi there."

"WHOA!" She stumbled back, and I had to keep her from falling. I thought I explained what Golurks looked like to her, but I guess she had to see him for herself to get the full effect.

"Heh. Sorry," he said.

"So you're Darren the Golurk?" she asked. "Um…hi…"

"And you're the other Amy. Nice to meet you too," he replied.

Uh-oh.

"Other Amy?" she asked. "What other Amy?"

Darren's face froze. Then he looked at me. "You never…told her?"

I was still trying to search for an answer when all of a sudden…

"FREEZE!"

The door burst open, and finally I saw my mom and dad for the very first time since I turned into a Jigglypuff. But they weren't happy to see me—or us, for that matter. Most shocking of all, though, was the fact that they were carrying purple spray cans!

"MOM? DAD?" I shouted.

"AMY, GET DOWN!" shouted Darren.

He used Shadow Punch through the open window straight into the room and smashed the purple spray cans before my mom and dad could even use them. The impact sent them smashing into the hallway behind the room's door, too. He then scooped me up and prepared to drag me out.

"Wait, whoa, what's going on!" shouted my clone, trying to stop Darren from pulling me out. As a result, she got pulled out too and was hanging onto Darren for her life.

"AAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAH!" she shouted, just like the day Darren rescued me, and I freaked out from being picked up and carried through the air like that.

"Darren!" I shouted. "What are you—?"

"Hang on!" he shouted, holding both me and my clone to his chest before going into Mach 3.

Even when it was finally over, and we arrived in the airspace above the Long Island Base, my clone was still freaking out.

"Amy…Amy…it's okay, it was scary when this happened to me too. He won't drop you…"

But no matter what I said, she didn't stop until we safely landed on the ground in a clearing in the middle of the woods, upon which she broke away from his grip and jumped to the ground rather violently.

After she caught her breath and calmed her nerves down, which took about all of five minutes, she cleared her throat. "Okay, what the heck is going on? Why did you call Jigglypuff 'Amy?'" she shouted at Darren. "Why did you call my mom and dad "Mom" and "Dad"?" she shouted at me.

"Okay, okay, calm down! We'll explain everything," said Darren. Then he turned to me and asked, "Amy? I thought you said you told her everything. What DIDN'T you tell her?"

I sighed. All these months of withholding bits of the truth from her…and it was all for nothing. It looked like I couldn't lie anymore. "Amy, the truth is…that real Pokémon…aren't really Pokémon. At least, at first. We're actually humans who have turned into Pokémon, and the real term for us is Pokéumans. This isn't the Long Island Pokémon Base…this is the Long Island Pokéumans Base. And the Pokémon Rescue Troop is actually the Pokéumans Rescue Troop."

Darren gave me an odd look.

"Okay…" she said. "So basically, you used to be a human named 'Amy', right?"

"It's more complicated than that…" I took a deep breath. "When we begin to transform, and Pokéxtinction finds us, they take a DNA sample from us, usually our hair. And regardless of whether they capture us or if a PRT member rescues us, they use that hair to recreate us exactly, with all of our memories except for that of the transformation. Then they replace us with this clone so that no one in the real world ever notices that we're gone."

The truth hit her, and she stumbled back. "No way…!"

"It's true," said Darren. He brought out a humanizing ring and pulled it over his head, transforming into a 23-year-old man with blue jeans, black hair and t-shirt, and a faded blue vest. Then he turned to me, handed me another ring, and said, "Show her, Amy."

I pulled it over my head and transformed into an exact copy of my clone. Same brown hair, same bright green eyes, same height of 4'3"…even our pink PJs were exactly the same.

"I know, it's hard to believe, but you're really me the day before I became a Jigglypuff. That was my real mom and dad. And for some reason…" I gasped. "They were working for Pokéxtinction all along! So THAT was why they attacked me in my room!"

And that must have meant that they knew I was turning into a Jigglypuff, even when I hid my Jigglypuff ears. Maybe it was my vastly improved singing voice that gave me away!

Darren took the ring off and reverted back to his normal Golurk self, and I did the same. "All you remember is your 10th birthday being nothing but fun, right? You don't remember ever suddenly finding yourself growing Jigglypuff ears in the mirror, right?"

"I knew there was something funny about that day…" she growled darkly. "Did you know? The day after that, Fox Kids was gone, and so were Game Boy Colors and Nintendo 64s. Now they have stuff like the Wii and Nintendo 3DS, computers with Window 7, and FIVE generations of Pokémon! FIVE! Did you send me ten years into the future, too!"

I was stunned. "W—well, I did notice Fox Kids was gone, but then I get too distracted to really wonder…"

"Oh. So that wasn't you."

"I swear it wasn't me! I don't know who sent us through some freaky time machine!" I panicked.

"Maybe you were…" mused Darren. "'Cause the stuff you're talking about sounds like stuff I haven't seen since I was 13. But I wouldn't know how."

My clone sat down, completely overwhelmed by it all. "…So what happens to me now? They don't let humans into that base of yours, do they?"

I hung my head in shame. "I'm sorry, Amy…I swear I never meant for it to be this way…but I honestly didn't know that Mom and Dad were working for Pokéxtinction, or that they'd come in like that, or—!"

"It does seem funny, though," said Darren. "The very night I happen to come with you, they come in. That never happened before, right?"

We nodded. "Yeah…"

My clone turned back to me asked, "So what should I call you now? I mean, you're me."

"Just Jigglypuff is fine, I think…" I trailed off. Why did this have to happen?

Darren said, "I think if we take you to Headmistress Asula and explain everything, I'm sure she'll let you stay with us until we figure out a way to take you home without attracting the attention of Pokéxtinction. I mean, I suppose I could take you back home right now, but since your parents are part of them, their members will likely be swarming the area by now. We can't risk being seen. I hope you understand."

To my surprise, she nodded and smiled. "I gotcha. That's okay, though. I've always wanted to see if the base was as fun as Jigglypuff said it would!"

Darren turned to the big rock in the center of the clearing and moved it aside. "Then here we go."

We descended back into the base, with Darren helping my clone out. She was amazed at the crystal-covered walls and floors, stared at the contraption that moved the rock back into its place above, and after we walked through the corridors, she stared in amazement at all the Pokéumans in the cafeteria down below. We walked through the main hallways as fast as we could, but she always wanted to stop and ask questions about everything. I sat on her head so that the other Pokéumans would think that she was transforming into one of them (and I was just blocking their view of which species it was), and Darren dragged her along by the arm.

Finally, we came before the giant stain-glass doors with the gold Poké Ball doorknobs. Darren and I gulped. It was the moment of truth. Darren knocked on the door three times.

"Come in," said Asula from inside.

We opened the doors and walked through to see the Milotic busy with loads of paperwork at her desk. It looked like her robotic arms might not be enough, and we were suddenly worried that we caught her at a bad time.

She looked up, saw my clone, and stopped to stare. "Wait. I wasn't informed of a new Pokéuman to be coming here…"

"Um…slight problem," said Darren. "She's…not really a Pokéuman. She's Amy's clone, and we were wondering—"

"Clone?" Asula roared. "Darren, what were you thinking? We can't let other humans discover our existence, because for all we know, Pokéxtinction will brainwash them into turning against us! You know that!"

My clone flinched, clearly terrified by Asula's sudden temper. I was, too, but I had to explain.

"Miss Asula!" I shouted. "We had no choice! My mom and dad are part of Pokéxtinction, and I had to get her out of the way or else she would've been…."

"So what exactly do you want us to do with her?" she asked coldly.

Darren thought for a second. "She can stay in my room. Then we'll figure out how to get her home without Pokéxtinction noticing us."

Suddenly, we heard an urgent bleeping noise. Asula pressed a flashing button on her desk, and a TV monitor came down with Commander Cuczcoff's face on it. "Headmistress!" he shouted.

"What is it, commander?"

"There's another wave of Pokéxtinction soldiers headed our way, and they're a lot closer than the earlier one! It's not nearly as big, but the Tech Teams says they're being drawn here by a signal that just so happens to be coming from where you are!"

"WHAT?" Darren and I shouted. We looked around the office for a device, but couldn't find any.

"There!" shouted Asula. She used her tail to lift my clone's hair away from the back of her head, and then smacked it.

"OW!" she shouted.

A little pin-like device fell to the floor, which she promptly crushed.

"Good job, it's stopped broadcasting," said the commander. He then noticed us and shouted, "Darren? Amy? What's a human doing with you?"

"Another spy?" accused Asula.

"WHAT?" shouted me, Darren, and my clone all at the same time.

The commander shouted, "Well then, hurry! Lock her in the dungeon NOW!" Then the screen turned off.

I'd never seen Asula so angry. She slithered from behind her desk and promptly wrapped my clone so hard that she was threatening to crush her windpipes. "You are coming with ME," she growled.

"No, wait, don't hurt her!" I shouted, jumping on top of my clone's head.

"Amy, she has brought even MORE Pokéxtinction troops to us! She has to be locked away, or she'll tell them all our secrets!"

"Then I'm coming with her!" I shouted.

Asula and Darren stared at me in shock.

"I'm NOT leaving her alone. Either you lock us both, or you don't lock us at all." There was no way I was going to let anyone take away my only link to the way I once was, a link that was starting to become more and more permanently messed up.

Asula stared at me for a long time. Then she sighed. "Fine. Let's go."

As she slithered out the door and downstairs towards a dank, dark area of the base I'd never been before, Darren followed. "Amy. You don't have to do this."

"I have to, Darren," I protested.

"Don't leave me, please…" he barely whispered.

I looked at him in the eyes, and I could see that he was on the verge of breaking down again, but I had to tell him the truth. "She asked me not to leave her, either."

My clone then whispered, "Thanks…Jigglypuff…"

We were headed downstairs towards the cells of the dungeon. Who knew how long it would be until my clone was allowed out? But I was determined to be there with her the whole time, no matter what.

**To be continued…**


	9. The Truth Comes Out

**Chapter 9: The Truth Comes Out**

Asula dragged us through a big iron door to a row of prison cells and opened the first door on the left. She uncoiled herself, shoving me and my clone onto the only bed in the empty room before slithering out and slamming the door shut.

Darren peered through the small window in the door. "Amy! I'll figure this out soon, I swear—!"

"Darren!" shouted Asula. "I need you right away. Come!"

He sighed. "Yes…ma'am…" Then turned to us, whispered a quick, "Sorry!" and left.

My clone curled up into a ball on the bed and started to cry. "Why…? I'm not…a spy…"

"Look, I don't know what's going on any more than you do, but what I do know is that our mom and dad were working for Pokéxtinction all along. Maybe they had something to do with this!"

"It's not fair…" she sobbed. "If only I…never went with you guys…"

As I tried to comfort her, I thought hard. "I don't know…maybe they would have erased your memory…"

"That would be a lot better then, wouldn't it?"

To my horror, I realized I wasn't making things any better. I had to come up with an excuse. "No it wouldn't! What if they erased ALL your memories of me? That wouldn't be right, now, would it?"

Her eyes opened in shock. "No…it wouldn't."

Right then, I heard an all-too familiar set of voices from another cell, which were slightly muffled. "Oh, great. Now there's TWO fuzzbutts?"

"Either that or she's talking to herself like some kind of psycho."

I clenched my teeth (or whatever it was that acted as teeth). "Patch and Connie…" I explained to my clone.

"Those bullies who beat you up twice?" she gasped. "What are THEY doing here?"

"You idiots," said another voice from farther away. "This is detention. Patch and Connie managed to land themselves in here AGAIN."

"And I've heard. You brought your clone with you here, too?"

"I always knew you were a scumbag."

My clone grew even more worried. "Who are they?"

"Steve, Spike and Sam. Those PRT guys who also attacked me." I couldn't stand it. Why was everyone who hated me in here, too?

"Everyone SHUT UP!" shouted a Walrein from outside the door in the hall, or at least what we could see of him.

They stopped talking, but they muttered something too low for me to hear.

"It's not fair, Jigglypuff…" she mumbled. "I just…I just wanted to be together…"

"It's okay, Amy. I'm sure I'll figure a way out of this…somehow…"

I let her use me as a pillow, as the one on this bed was nasty and horrible, but it still took a while for me to fall asleep. Like she said, it just wasn't fair. All I wanted was to get out of here and live with her, too. I even had everything planned out. But no, the one day that Darren wanted to make sure it was safe, my mom and dad had to come out and ruin everything. Why in the world would they be working for Pokéxtinction, anyway? I never remembered that being their job at all. They were supposed to be scientists working for the government, a really respectable job. Was that just a cover story?

I hoped that the day would soon come when I got to ask them those questions, but I knew that would never happen. All I could do was stay here in this dungeon and wait it out until they decided to release us.

The only comforting thought was that at least I was with her the whole time.

* * *

><p>"Amy! Both of you. Wake up."<p>

We woke up to the door of our cell being opened…by Asula herself?

I rubbed my eyes. "Nngh…Miss Asula? What…?"

"This way."

Completely confused, we followed her out of the dungeon and through the halls down more hallways I'd never been down before. I noticed that she wasn't trying to strangle my clone and instead let her walk. But I still clung to my clones' head, just in case.

I asked, "Miss Asula…where are we—?"

"I'll explain when we get there," she replied.

Soon enough, we arrived in front of a door to a room with a set of shiny glass walls. I looked inside, and to my surprise, my mom and dad were in there! They looked like they were strapped to a table very similar to the kind I was strapped to when I was captured, except there was no pointy laser thing aiming at their heads, and the bright fluorescent lights didn't feel as weird.

"I'll explain," Asula cleared her throat. She then turned to me and my clone. "Shortly after I locked you two up, I sent Darren to deal with that small wave of Pokéxtinctionists that was coming our way. He took care of them swiftly and secretly, just as I ordered. However…two of them possessed this strange device that seemed to react in his presence. He spared them not only because he wanted answers about it, but that he identified them as your parents. He thinks that you two would be the most likely candidates to get them to reveal the information for us. In addition, I'm sure you two have many, many personal questions you want to ask them yourself. Hopefully, we'll be able to find out why there was that tracking device behind YOUR neck…" She glared at my clone severely. "And learn whether you really are a spy or not."

She opened the door. "What do you say?"

I was speechless. Here she was giving me the opportunity I thought I would never have in a million years. It was a no-brainer, of course. My clone said, "Thanks, Miss Asula…" before rushing in, and I held onto her head.

The door shut behind us, and I realized that the walls weren't made of shiny glass from the inside. In fact, they were completely opaque. Was this a special kind of room where you could see in, but couldn't see out? It was weird, but I guess if I was strapped to a table, I probably wouldn't want to know if people were looking in…

"Mom! Dad!" my clone shouted.

They looked up at her. "Amy?" Then at me.

I glared at them, feeling betrayed. I remembered them being the nicest parents I could ask for. The first time in almost a year since I've been able to see them, and it turns out they were part of Pokéxtinction all along. "You know who I am, don't you?"

My clone asked, "Is it true? Am I really her clone that was made to replace her when she turned into a Jigglypuff?"

My mom nodded weakly. Apparently, their encounter with Darren must have taken a lot out of them. "Yeah…sorry…"

My clone looked down, crushed. I'm sure she felt betrayed, too. My fists clenched, and for a second, I wanted to make them pay for making her feel this way. But I had a lot more questions to ask. "Even if you were working for Pokéxtinction all this time…you didn't have to—!"

"Amy, it wasn't our choice!" shouted my dad.

I was stunned. "Wha…? Dad, what do you mean?"

"It happened on the morning of your 10th birthday…" he explained. "Some guys in black and white armor came into our house and held us hostage. They said that they would kill all of us if we didn't join them…"

"And not only that…" my mom added. "They showed us all these weird devices. These computers with Windows 7, these so-called Blu-Ray players, these Ipads…we thought they were spy gadgets, but they said that normal people use those things nowadays, including our co-workers, and that they would teach us how to use it if we joined them. But namely, we didn't want you to die, so we agreed."

My dad had a dark look in his eye. "They must have known. If only we knew that you would turn into a Jigglypuff that same day…" He paused. "Well, they made us use those spray cans on you, and they loaded you into the van and drove off, but not before replacing you with your clone."

My mom then turned to my clone. "When you woke up the next morning, you acted like nothing had happened. We all thought it was a bad dream, and none of the Pokéxtinction stuff ever happened…" She sighed. "Until the day they developed this machine that would extract the internal energy of a Pokémon called Golurk."

I was stunned. "Wait…you mean Darren? They made something that would kill him?"

"Yes," said Dad. "They came to us and said that you escaped alive, and were working for this organization called Pokéumans, where there were others like you. They said you and this Golurk often worked together to disrupt many of their operations. In fact, this Darren had been disrupting them for years, but with you, his success rate became unacceptably high. So they'd been working on a technology that would put an end to him once and for all."

Mom said, "Darling, they said they would kill us if we told them everything about—"

"It's okay!" I shouted. Now I understood what was going on. "We'll make sure they never find you here."

"That's the problem…" said Mom. "They're going to use Darren's energy to power their new energy cannon, which uses special crystals to turn everyone here back into humans for about a month. When their army comes, they'll be able to capture everyone without having to fight against your Pokémon powers. And they'll find us here and kill us for sure."

This was huge. "So you placed that thing on my clone's neck because you knew Darren and I were coming?" I asked.

"When did this happen?" shouted my clone.

"Right before bedtime," said Mom. "This thing started beeping—"

As if on cue, the device started beeping. A few seconds later, Darren blasted through the door. "Mr. and Mrs. Amy's mom and dad, with all due respect…where are they keeping the files of you guys?"

Dad replied, "Same place. It's the one near West Virginia. The same place where Amy was taken. Why?"

"'Cause if I take out that base, you guys wouldn't ever have to work for Pokéxtinction again, right?"

"Yes, but it won't be easy for yo—"

"I'll do it! I'll ask the commander and be back in a flash! Hang on for me, Amy!" And with that, he flew out of the room.

"Wait…Darren…!"

My mom and dad looked down, ashamed. "No…"

"What's wrong?" I asked, though I was worried about the answer.

"The device to sap Darren's life force out and doom us all is also in that building. This is what Pokéxtinction wanted us to do all along," explained Dad.

"NO…!" I shouted before bouncing off of my clone's head. "DARREN!" I didn't understand it. How could Darren not hear the bit about how there's a death trap out there for him? Was he not here for that bit? Did Asula forget to tell him?

"Well, we've never actually been there before, so if the files and the weapon are far away, he should be fine. But he might need some help, just in case," said Mom.

I ran out the door in front of Asula. "Amy…? I'm sorry, I forgot to tell him..."

So she did. But now was not the time for me to be mad at her. "Miss Asula…what's going to happen to my mom, dad, and clone?"

"I'll keep them in a safe room until this mess is all over with. I won't tell anyone about their existence here. Everyone's too worried about the coming army for me to tell them about your family, too. They'll be in good hands."

"Okay…I hope you're right." I curled into a Rollout and sped off to the commander's office, hoping to catch Darren in time.

I sped down the hallways past many other Pokéumans I knew. Many of them were confused and wanted to ask me things, but I was too fast for them to say anything. I didn't have time, anyway. I had to warn Commander Cuczcoff.

I arrived at his office and shouted, "Reporting for duty, sir!" and saluted.

The Escavalier looked up from his paperwork. "Huh? Amy? I didn't call you here for a mission…"

"Did Darren come here yet, sir?" I demanded.

"Whoa, whoa, hold your horses. He just came here and said that he'd go blow up the Pokéxtinction base where you were held so that your parents wouldn't have to worry about revealing our secrets to them. The records of their employees are localized, so if he blows it up, they won't have any records to track your parents down anymore."

My face blanched. "But sir, there's a really bad weapon over there—!"

"I'm sure he will be able to handle this mission himself. It's not the first time he's blown up a base, after all. Smashing is his specialty," he said.

"But let someone help him as backup, anyone! Like me—!"

"You? Definitely not you. You've got a debut musical performance coming in about one hour. Did you forget?"

Apparently, with all the insanity that was going on, I did. "They didn't cancel it? But I thought…"

"They said that a musical would help make everyone less tense from all that training they're doing. Helps boost morale, too, you know. So in fact, the timing couldn't be better!"

No. The timing was the absolute worst of all. "But, can you send anyone, like Reggie—?"

"I'll think about it. Anyway, get moving! We're all counting on you to make this performance a success!" With that, he floated over the desk and tried to push me along, but with his lances as hands, all he succeeded in doing was poking me out the door.

"AAAAAAAAH!" I freaked out and curled into a Rollout, speeding down the hallways to the official theatre practice rooms to meet all my friends. Jane, Sammy, Chase, Kayla, Lily, and everyone else would surely be waiting for me, sick with worry, wondering why I didn't come back last night. I couldn't bail out on them now. Besides, I had worked hard at memorizing all my lines and dance moves these past several months. I couldn't let all my hard work come to nothing. And I planned to do it before running away to live with my clone. At least, that was the plan, until all this happened.

But still…why did it have to be now, when Darren's life was in danger? Why, why, why, why, WHY?

**To be continued…**


	10. For What I Believe In

**Chapter 10: For What I Believe In**

As soon as I burst into the Musical Room, I uncurled myself, out of breath.

"She's back!" shouted Jane. "Look, everyone! Amy's back!"

Everyone in the Musical Club turned my way, cheering and applauding. They carried me up to the front of the room in relief and excitement.

Mrs. Corrine the Clefable was already there. "Amy! Where WERE you? The musical's about to start soon! We were so worried!"

I caught my breath. "Sorry, Mrs. Corrine…had a lot of PRT business last night. Major operation." Since I was Elite ranked, they easily believed me. I straightened myself up. "But I'm here, and I'm ready!"

"Yay, Amy!" shouted Lily, bouncing out of the crowd to hug me. One of the best things I liked about my Petilil roommate was that her hugging didn't really feel like hugging because she had no arms. The same couldn't be said for Jane, Sammy, and especially Kayla. The Kirlia, Gothitelle, and Mienshao had such long arms that they all piled onto a group hug.

"Can't…breathe…" I complained.

"Okay, okay, break it up, now! We need her to make this whole thing work!" said Chase. Being an Unfezant, I didn't have to worry about hugs from him. Maybe pecking, if that.

We all sat down to listen to one last speech from Mrs. Corrine. She paced back and forth at the front of the room and announced, "Okay, kids, this is it. A lot of Pokéumans have been training like mad these past few weeks, and the rest are scared to death. But we have to show them that all hope is not lost! Make this first performance of ours the best we can, and give them the motivation they need to keep going and fight until the end! Now who's with me?"

"YEEEEEEEAAAAH!" we all shouted. Even me.

I was so worried about Darren, but in that moment, I realized there was no way I could turn my back on all my friends here. If only my original plan worked out, this would be the last time I would ever see them. But regardless of whether I would see them again or not, I would put all my effort into this. I memorized my lines. I memorized my dance moves. I could project my voice all the way to the end of the theatre and back. And I'd been practicing this along with my new friends for the past several freaking months. There was no way I was going to let them down.

For the next half-hour, I helped everyone get their costumes, props, and make-up right, as well as help to get all the backgrounds and everyone's mini-microphones in place. Especially the mini-microphones. With it, I wouldn't have to make my voice as loud, and so my voice wouldn't tire out before the end, which was necessary because I had ten songs in the whole it was time, which wasn't very long after that, we all stood in the dark backstage, listening to the voices of Pokéumans sitting out there, eagerly waiting for the show to begin.

I was fidgeting up and down, getting myself pumped. This was it!

"Amy? You nervous?" asked Lily.

"Nervous? No, I can't wait! This is going to be awesome!" I replied.

Lily sighed. "Wow…you're not nervous at all? Being in front of all those people?"

"They're just people," I said. "Don't worry about them. Let's show them what we can do!"

"Heh, Lily. Amy's never nervous when it comes to this stuff. It's like she's five years old," explained Jane, patting me on the head.

"But I'm ten—!" I protested.

"And Lily's just 11," replied Sammy. "But that's okay. If anything, you not being nervous is another reason why you're our ace in the hole."

"Places, everyone!" interrupted Mrs. Corrine.

Lily and everyone else lined up on the sides, while Chase, Kayla, Jane, Sammy, and I lined up in our spots behind the primary curtain. Kayla and Jane stood to my right, and Chase and Sammy stood to my left.

Mrs. Corrine walked onto the spot lit stage to cheers and applause, though we couldn't see her because we were behind the curtain. She stepped to a microphone in the center of the stage.

"Testing, testing." Then she shouted enthusiastically, "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today, I am proud to announce that we will be performing the Musical Club's debut performance! The story will be one from our past, and should hopefully inspire you all to fight the coming battle. So set your worries aside, and give it up for our wonderful ensemble!"

Everyone cheered. I was more excited than ever.

Mrs. Corrine walked off the stage and back into the backstage area. She gave us a thumbs-up. The light beyond the curtain dimmed, and the curtain came up.

A few seconds later, a single pinkish light shone on me. I heard a few girls in the audience go "Awww…!" Heh. Maybe that's another reason why I was considered this show's ace in the hole, other than my singing voice, of course. I looked out at the audiences' dimmed faces and smiled. It was showtime.

"A long, long, time ago, back in the days when Pokémon and humans still lived together, there was a time when they used to get along. And at the very best time of all, they created a hero to protect them both from a threat that would have otherwise spelled certain doom for us all, and none of us would be here today. That hero's name…was Golurk."

With my narration done, yellow, blue, red, and green lights shone on my friends, and the music began to play.

"We are the Muses, the storytellers of legends and stories through Pokéuman history…"

It wasn't a 100% musical; it was primarily a play with many, many musical numbers to help tell the story. Most of the songs were sung by us to help move the story along, but there were others that individual characters had.

We learned about this story in Mrs. Kyurei's class. She said that Goletts and Golurks came into being during the time when humans and Pokémon got along the best. One of the Legendary Pokémon announced that a meteor storm was coming from the sky, and there were many smaller chunks that they couldn't destroy in time, but were still powerful enough to decimate the many Pokémon habitats and human villages. So the Pokémon and the people got the brilliant idea to create a protector for them for the times the Legendary Pokémon were too busy. We still don't know exactly what kind of energy they used (some say the souls of Pokémon and people that were stolen by Lampents but taken back), but they inserted that energy into that metallic frame and created the first Automaton Pokémon, Golurk. He then proceeded to save the villages from the meteor, and they promised they would be friends ever since.

Of course we all knew what happened afterward. Of course we knew that humans started abusing the Pokémon so badly that they eventually had to relocate to another dimension, leaving the poor Goletts and Golurks brokenhearted. But this story was supposed to promote hope that someday, somehow, we would be able to live together with humans without having to be hunted down by Pokéxtinction all the time.

Since we didn't know the names of the specific Pokémon and humans involved, in our musical version, we invented our own characters. In fact, everyone wanted me to be the main Pokémon heroine, so I had two roles, which I was able to transition to and from seamlessly in the context of the story. As for the humans, we basically got human-like Pokémon (those like Sammy) and allowed them to wear whatever they liked. This got big laughs from the audience, seeing "humans" wearing modern-day/1950's/futuristic/whatever clothes when in reality, the humans probably wore just caveman outfits, if any. As for our Golurk? We just made it one big puppet controlled by strings in the rafters, and one of the guys was inside it, doing the voice.

Nevertheless, our Archeops instructor gave me very valuable hints back when I painted the sets. At least those were historically accurate.

Finally, it was all over, and we bowed to cheers and applause. My voice was pretty tired, but I was still hanging in there. Now that I had gotten over the thrill of completing the musical with everyone, the thoughts from before came into my head again, and the fact that the musical was about Golurks didn't help matters any.

Darren!

That musical took so long! Who knew if he got into that death trap already? I hoped that he was okay—I wanted to believe he was okay—but I didn't want to just wait here and hope that he came back. I wanted to check for myself.

"Amy? Where are you going?"

I couldn't stay to sign autographs or celebrate with everyone else. I had a job to do.

I curled into a Rollout and sped towards Commander Cuczcoff's office again. "Sir!" I saluted.

His eyes widened, surprised to see me so soon after the musical ended, but then smiled. "Amy! Welcome back! How did it go?"

"With all due respect, sir, I have to know. Did Darren come back yet?"

Then he frowned as he thought hard. "…No. No, not yet. I know these missions take time, but when it comes to smashing bases, he usually—"

I was out the door and on my way to Darren's room. I blasted through it, ran past his stack of familiar adventure/horror books, and went out through the secret passage.

It was a dark, cloudy day. I curled into a Rollout and headed straight for the base that Darren had surely smashed by now.

Terrifying thoughts whirled around in my head. He could go to other bases much faster with his Mach 3 speeds than I could with my Rollout. Plus, he had all the time during my musical performance, and yet he still wasn't back. And it would take me hours to even get there. I honestly hoped that everything was all right and he was just relaxing, or maybe going off to work on more missions, but that was ridiculous. I was even more horrified that he was already dead; or that he was dead a long time ago and they were about to shoot that humanizing cannon at the base already.

But I still had to see for myself. I didn't want his rash act to be my last memory of him, ever. He promised he would come see my performance, help me pack my things, leave silently, and drop me off at my clone's house where we'd say goodbye for the last time. He promised he would then announce to everyone at the base the reasons why I had to leave them. I didn't know what could compel him to go on this crazy mission when he promised he'd so all those things for me, even when things with my family had gone so wrong.

And besides…he had helped me so many times, not just from rescuing me from Pokéxtinction the night I transformed. The time when Patch and Connie landed me in the hospital, the time when I trained to become a PRT member, the time he got me a laptop with a D-Power Digivice, all those missions we went on, the time he made me realize this whole thing was wrecking my life…over and over again, he did all this stuff just for me. And he said he was horrible at making friends for the first few years he was at the base…

I uncurled myself when I arrived at the base that I vaguely remembered from that fateful night, and saw that though the exact wall that Darren had burst through was patched up, the impact was still visible. In front of me was a new hole that Darren had made, one he surely must have punched through this morning. Oddly enough, no one was there. I ran through the hole and followed the path of destruction that he made, worried about what I would find at the end.

The base was a lot bigger than I thought it was, almost as if during the time I was at the Long Island Pokéumans Base, they were busy expanding it. The computers, lab equipment, floors, fire alarms, walls…everywhere was crushed by either Darren's Shadow Punches, Earthquakes, and sometimes even from his combo move, Shadow Quake. But it wasn't like Darren to leave a smashing job unfinished like this. What had happened?

I heard voices up ahead, almost as if it was some sort of crowd, and instantly hid behind a crumbling column. I slowly peered out to find that the voices weren't coming from ahead…but below. Specifically, from the glass inset into the floor.

"Fellow members of Pokéxtinction! May I have your attention, please?"

The voices fell silent.

I felt like I was running out of time. I ran to the glass floor that looked like a glass ceiling for an auditorium below at the same time, and peered in. There was a crowd of people in those black-and-white armored uniforms. They all also wore helmets, but none of them had their visors on. On the stage was a guy who just grabbed a handheld microphone, and behind him was a giant black tarp covering...something massive and complex.

"It is my pleasure to show you our newest weapon that will bring those lowly animals to their knees. I give you…the humanizing laser cannon!"

He pulled the black tarp off and threw it to the side. I gasped in horror. It was a giant laser cannon that led to the outside. Pink crystals were stuck in various intervals throughout the cannon. It also had thick wires that led to a circular contraption made of what looked like Atlantean technology (including runes), and tied to that contraption wasn't just any random Golurk.

"Darren!" I gasped. I was relieved to find that I wasn't too late, but at the same time, realized that I had to do something, and fast. Darren's limbs weren't the only things that were chained to that circular contraption. There was a suction wire attached to that seal on his chest, and I only could guess too well what they were planning to do…

"Hey, let me go!" he shouted. "Just because I'm a robot-looking Pokémon doesn't give you the right to treat me like a robot! And I have a name, too! It's Darren!"

Right then, a surge of light blue energy went through the ring and coursed through his body, forcing him to shout in pain. Hardly anything made him shout in pain. He was a freaking robotic ghost. This was serious.

"Right. With a flick of that lever, we will drain all of its energy and used it to power this humanizing laser cannon, specially amplified by our rare crystals here, to temporarily turn all those animals at the Long Island Base into humans just like us…vulnerable for us to capture them all!"

Someone raised their hand. "But sir, how will we know if they're the animals or not?"

The guy on stage scoffed. "That is what the newest programs installed into your visors are for."

I might have been up against a whole crowd of Pokéxtinctionists that for all I knew were hiding guns, but I was not going to let them kill Darren like that AND doom everyone at the base. I quickly got a running start, curled into a ball, electrified myself, and crashed right through the glass floor/ceiling, aiming directly at the nasty gun itself.

KER-SMASH!

Darren looked up. "Amy?"

That was when total chaos broke loose.

I smashed between it and Darren's restraints as much as I could, breaking the crystals out of the machine and sending so much electricity into it, I blew out its wires. Many of the Pokéxtinctionists ducked for cover and tried to get out, but a few stayed behind…even the guy on the stage.

They pulled their guns out at me. I simply sent a Thunderbolt through them all, rendering the guns useless. Even more of them ran away.

"Aww…how cute! Didn't know little kid heroes came in pink PJs nowadays," taunted the guy with the now-broken microphone.

Huh?

What was he talking about? And why did he look…shorter than usual?

I looked at my hands…and shouted. "AAAAAH!"

"Amy, it was when you crashed through those crystals. They turned you back into a human!" explained Darren. Unfortunately, his restraints weren't completely broken.

"WHAT?" I shouted. Why now? I couldn't use any awesome electric attacks or bounce around anymore?

"Don't worry—I think it's temporary—"

"How long it will be before I change back, then?"

The guy strode up to the wire attached to the seal on Darren's chest and smiled evilly. "It'll be too late to save your friend."

Before I even had time to react, he tugged on the wire and pulled the seal clean off Darren's chest!

"AAAAAAAGH!" Bright yellow energy exploded from the hole the seal was covering, scattering in all directions. Unfortunately for the guy, I had already busted the end of the wire connecting into the gun enough to make the energy transfer useless. The energy destroyed the restraints on Darren's arms and legs and exploded all over the Pokéxtinctionists, sending him flying in the air against the wall. It nearly vaporized him.

As for the seal, it flew right into my stomach, and I held to it hard. I ran as fast as I could to Darren as if it were a bandage, but to stop a wound that was much, much worse.

"Amy…!" he gasped. "Don't! You'll be…vaporized…!"

There was no way I'd stop, though. This was his soul that was coming out. If I didn't put the seal back immediately, he'd die, and I wasn't going to let that happen.

I ran and leap into the air, aiming the seal directly on the spot. "DARREN!"

The energy bursting from that point caught me in its blast mere inches before I slammed it on completely, but I still pushed onward, despite the intense pain. I wouldn't stop until it was back in place.

Darren had helped me more than anyone else ever had. I never ever voluntarily took a dangerous mission that wasn't even an official mission this freely…until today. I remembered how he once said that someone who had such a safe and happy life as a human shouldn't put my life on the line and fight unless I absolutely had no choice. I thought I understood when I successfully defeated Patch and Connie for the first time.

But that wasn't just what he meant. That time, I had to fight to defend myself. I'd been fighting to defend myself all this time. This time, however, was different. This time, I was fighting to defend someone else's life, and not just a new Pokéumans'. This was what it was like to fight for what I believed in.

And most importantly, I would finally be able to repay him for helping me all this time. I would be able to help him in the best way possible that would make his patience with me all worth it. I used to feel so guilty that he knew all my interests and was always there for me, but not the other way around. But now, for once…I would be the one who would rescue him.

Amidst the pain and light and energy, I could only hear his anguished scream.

"AMY!"

**To be continued…**


	11. All My Dreams Were For Nothing?

**Chapter 11: All My Dreams Were For Nothing?**

It happened right before the day of my 20th birthday.

I had just come home from college on Spring Break and was sitting at my desk in my room, working on my latest comic. All I'd been drawing lately was Pokémon, especially Jigglypuff. Don't get me wrong; I had plans to make an original 10-book epic manga series ever since I was 14, but I figured that I would develop my art and writing skills until I graduated so I could have my debut work be the best it could be. I already had my own laptop and Cintiq 12WX tablet. All I had to do was keep practicing in preparation for that day.

I decided to head to the bathroom to take a little break from drawing for two hours straight, and right there, in the mirror, I saw…that I had sprouted Jigglypuff ears on my head. Like cat ears, except pink.

What?

I just stared as I held my mouth to keep from freaking out. I heard of such phenomena from this group called Pokéumans on Deviant Art, but I thought all that was a series of fictional stories just for thrills. But this was real?

That also meant that Pokéxtinction must be nearby.

I ran out of the bathroom to look out through my bedroom window, and sure enough, I saw a white van pull up onto the driveway.

This was bad. My mom and dad were away going grocery shopping. Why did I pick that time of all times to stay home? Oh yeah. It would have been a lot worse if everyone saw me like that at the store, and I'd have to run away from brainwashed people…

Some men in black and white armored suits began coming out of the van. Crap crap crap crap crap…what could I do? Wait for a PRT member to come find me? Well, if these Pokéxtinction guys surrounded my house, I suppose I could be like that kid from the Home Alone series of movies, but…no, I wouldn't be able to hold them off forever.

It was a risky move, but I decided to take it. I ran downstairs and exited the back door.

I ran through the forest as fast as I could, anything to get away from that white van. Did they have a tracking device locked onto me? Even if they did, it was better if I was a moving target. But they'd better not be breaking my laptop and tablet at home! I paid good money for that stuff!

Then a blue robot from the sky landed right in front of me, forcing me to grind to a halt. Wait…it was a Golurk. I honestly hoped he was a PRT member, and the chances were good that he was, but if that wasn't the case…

"It—it's okay! Just calm down, I'm here to help!" he said while raising his arms. Not sure why, though…it's not like Pokémon had access to weaponry or anything like that, right?

I quickly looked behind myself to check for Pokéxtinction members. I couldn't see any, but I could definitely hear some shouting. Terrified, I turned to the Golurk and said, "Get me out of here!"

I probably should have expected what came next, but it was still shocking. Then again, being yanked from the ground and carried into the air wasn't the kind of thing you could really expect if it never happened to you before.

"AAAAAAAH!" I clung to the Golurk as hard as I could, even though I really didn't need to, as his grip was already quite stable. I wasn't taking any chances, though. All I could do was shut my eyes and wait until the air stopped rushing around me.

"It's okay. You can let go now."

I opened my eyes and found that we were in a clearing in the middle of a forest with a big boulder resting in the center. The Golurk helped me get back onto the ground. I was surprised at how gently he did so. Maybe he had a ton of experience at stuff like this.

"Who are you?" I asked. "And where am I?"

"My name's Darren. And you're at the Long Island Pokéumans Base. As for those guys back there, they're Pokéxtinction, and trust me, you don't want them to catch you. We're both known as Pokéumans, and it looks like you'll become a complete Jigglypuff in a week."

I nodded. "Long Island, huh? My cousins live around here. Pretty far away from my house, isn't it? How'd we get here so fast?"

Darren explained, "I can fly at speeds up to Mach 3." Then he gave me an odd look. "Funny. I thought you'd still be freaking out and hysterical about this. What's your name?"

I shrugged. "Technically, I'm still freaking out about that flying, but I guess this whole thing hasn't sunk in yet. Oh, and my name's Amy. Thanks for getting me out of there, Darren!"

"You're welcome!" Then in a lower voice, he added, "This has to be the easiest Rescue Number 301 in PRT history."

He showed me that the rock was actually the entrance to the base, and led me through the halls to Asula's office. I recognized the old back story about the existence of Pokéumans, but I was thrilled about how I got to see it all in movie/documentary form. Darren then offered to take me to my room, but I wanted to explore the base first, so he showed me around. We saw the video game room, the gym rooms, some of the classrooms, the pool area, the cafeteria, and many, many more. By the end of the day, though, I finally decided that I wanted to see this Room 301 that I would be living in.

"Eric! Cole! You have a new roommate."

Inside the room were two bunk beds on either side of the room. A wide-screen plasma TV sat on top of the table in between. A Sableye and a Bayleef, who were sitting on the bottom bunk to the left, were madly playing an Xbox 360 game on it. It looked like the Bayleef beat the Sableye.

"Seriously, Cole! Why the fu—?" He then noticed Darren and me standing in the doorway. "Wha—? Darren? What about a new…oh, hi."

"Sorry about that," said the Bayleef. "I'm Cole, and this is Eric. You?"

"Amy…" My voice fell. I couldn't believe my rotten luck. I got stuck with two boys; high school age boys at that. I might not have been as shocked as I would have been before college, but I still didn't trust these guys. Especially if they cussed.

"Amy? What's wrong?" asked Darren.

I looked up with a bleak expression on my face. "They let guys and girls be in the same room?"

"Whoa! It's not what you think!" Darren quickly explained. "We're all Pokémon, so technically, it's okay. See?"

That didn't make me feel that much better, but I saw his point. "Yeah…I guess…"

Cole came up to me. "It'll be okay. Seriously."

When it came time to choose a bed, I noticed that Cole and Eric had taken both bottom bunks. I wished I could have been more thrilled that I had my choice of top bunks. I chose the one above Cole, as I trusted Eric a lot less. Even so, I turned my back to them as the lights went out. If any of them even got within an inch of my bed, I planned to drop-kick them on the spot. Even if they were Pokémon.

* * *

><p>The next morning was a Sunday, and thankfully, I never had to drop-kick either of them. Looked like they were more trustworthy than I thought they'd be.<p>

I asked if I could get on the only computer in the room, and they allowed me to. But I got a nasty surprise.

"Hey…why is Deviant Art blocked?" I mean, not being able to use my graphics tablet was bad enough, but…this? I wanted to tell all my friends that I wouldn't be able to post art on that site anymore…

"Facebook is blocked, too," replied Cole. "It's to stop us from telling people about our existence. Can't have Pokéxtinction tracking us down, you know."

"WHAT?" I shouted. "But there was a Pokéumans group on it! How did—?"

"Beats me," said Eric. "Maybe just some nut job who coincidentally thought of that name. Or maybe some of the guys who beat the Elite Four and got out of here set it up. Who knows? All I know if it's one of us, they'd better know what they're doing, or else Pokéxtinction will find us."

That still didn't change the fact that I would never be able to speak with any of my friends again. No…not just my friends…my family, too. Everyone I ever knew…

I just broke down in tears right there, and it must have lasted for a very long time. At least Eric and Cole never bothered me about it. Maybe they went through this, too.

But on the other hand, THEY weren't manga artists who already had their futures planned out.

* * *

><p>There were some dark days after that, which in retrospect was weird, considering how I've never been depressed before. Not that I considered killing myself or anything. At least not then. I guess I was stuck trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life at that point. After all, I had high hopes that I was going to keep making art for everyone to see, and now my clone had pretty much snatched it away from me.<p>

To make matters worse, I was then stuck into a bunch of boring classes with some excruciating PE and Battle Classes. I hated how we had to do stuff like Dodgeball in PE. I mean, that was stuff I wished I never had to go through again. And don't even get me started about Battle Class. This one time, Mr. Brimhall (the Smeargle) and Mr. Dorniyo (the Hariyama) had the Normal-types and the Fighting-types fight each other to see what creative strategies us Normal-types came up with. Needless to say, I ran as fast as I could to get out of there, but unfortunately, I was up against this Lucario guy named Isaac, and his Aura Sphere…well, it just wouldn't stop chasing me. It slammed me against a wall and I was out like a light.

I probably should have focused on making friends, but I was too down in the dumps to even make much of an effort. Socialization never came that easily to me, especially after elementary school, where suddenly, almost no one was into Pokémon and you heard F-bombs being dropped in the hallways all the time. Funny, isn't it? Now I was in a place where everyone was a Pokémon. You'd think it would be easy, but no…I didn't see it at the time.

I met this Machamp and Weezing named Patch and Connie. They said they knew full well what I was going through, and offered some moral support. Believe it or not, they were my very first friends at the base.

Unfortunately, others like Jane, Sammy, Chase, and Kayla told me that they weren't trustworthy at all. I didn't want to believe them at the time, because come on. How could they ever understand how I felt? Besides, I was older than all of them. They weren't the boss of me.

But then the day came when I couldn't deny the nasty rumors anymore. I was walking along with them when they suddenly started picking on this ten-year-old Farfetch'd boy.

I was furious at being betrayed like that. It was one thing to feel miserable about how this life was forced upon you, but taking your frustration out on others that were smaller and weaker than you? For all I knew, I could have been in that boy's place.

So I defended the poor guy and ordered them to stop, too angry to even worry about how suicidal that move would be. It even came to a two-on-two battle, but I was sure the boy and I would lose, until Asula came up to put a stop to it.

At the hospital, Jane, Sammy, Chase, Kayla, that boy, and even Darren came to reassure me that I did the right thing. I felt so horrible, though, that I didn't believe them. I told them everything about how I had my whole life ahead of me, only to have it snatched away, and worse yet, not be able to draw anymore. I told them I wanted a purpose for being here.

And what do you know? They told me that there were all these awesome clubs, such as the art club, the writing club, the comic-making club, and more. In fact, there was going to be a musical club coming soon, and as a Jigglypuff, I would be perfect in helping make their first performance a success.

I couldn't thank those guys enough. Even if I would never be able to keep in contact with my old friends again, these new people here were nice. And I realized that just them being there for me and supporting me out was enough.

* * *

><p>The next several months made me feel so much better. My classes might have been boring (well, except for History), but I was glad I could convince Asula to switch out Battle Class and Gym with more fun PE classes, like Step Aerobics and Running. Especially Running. I trained hard to be an endurance runner before all this and I wasn't going to let it all be for nothing.<p>

Mr. Brimhall was the president of the art and comic-making clubs, and I learned all I could from him. Even if people in the outside world could no longer see my works, at least Pokéumans from this base and others could.

And the musical club…wow. Right before it got started, Darren managed to rescue this 11-year-old girl named Lily who was turning into a Petilil, and she became my new roommate. We became very good friends, and I was glad to help her through her nightmares until they went away. I was thrilled when she and all my friends joined the club. Darren didn't, and neither did Eric and Cole, but they all promised to see my performance when the day came.

During the auditions, I thought I would still have some residual stage fright back from when I was 14, but thankfully, however much there was, it wasn't enough to mess up my performance. In fact, I had the best singing voice out of everyone there! Of course, that was mostly because I was now a Jigglypuff, but I still enjoyed it. After all, my voice completely sucked at singing before all this. It was looking like it was a good thing I became a Jigglypuff after all.

We rehearsed every weekend, and even during the weekdays, though I really didn't need to since I memorized my lines and dance moves rather quickly. It still helped to assist my friends with their roles, though.

* * *

><p>We were down to the last week before showtime when the news came. Asula ordered everyone to come to the auditorium, where we were introduced to a Lopunny named Mindy who claimed to have just barely escaped the main Pokéxtinction base. She then told us that there was a spy among us that Mr. X sent, and the spy was a Lucario named Brandon. I felt bad watching him being taken by Asula, especially since he was clearly protesting his innocence. But like the fool that I was, I kept my mouth shut and didn't do anything. This was Asula we were talking about there. Besides, what if Brandon really was the spy? He was part-Fighting, and would've knocked me out in one hit if I was wrong about him.<p>

Then it turned out that, like I suspected, Brandon wasn't the spy at all. But what I never expected was that Mindy was the real spy! I felt angry that she got away with important files from Asula and now there was a massive Pokéxtinction army coming our way, but at least we got Mindy's diary, so at least we were on somewhat even ground. Then there came the announcement that if we wanted to help fight that massive army, we should sign up for these two-week-long grueling training sessions. There was no way I was going to do it, and neither were my friends, especially since we had our major production coming up soon.

* * *

><p>Finally, the day of the musical arrived. I played my part as the Muse of Cuteness as best I could, and we finished to cheers and applause. I could tell that all those trainees felt relieved to be given a short break from their intense training sessions. Even Eric and Cole were there, just as they promised. My heart swelled with pride. Finally, I had found a new purpose for my life, and I honestly thought that I would help everyone at the musical club with all their future performances for the rest of my life.<p>

But where was Darren? He said he'd be here for this one. And given how the subject matter was all about Golurks and how they came into being, I didn't think he'd be one to miss this. I scanned through the wildly cheering audience again. Nope, still no sign of him.

As soon as I was done signing autographs for everyone and Mrs. Corrine congratulated us with a party complete with cake and everything, I wandered through the halls, looking for Darren. I thought about entering the PRT area and asking around, but that area was off-limits to those who weren't PRT members. Even though I might have been the lead role in the musical, I still didn't want to risk getting yelled at, or worse. I approached the door to Asula's office and knocked.

"Come in," she said.

I went in and saw that her desk was overloaded in stacks of paperwork. Her robotic arms frantically took pieces of paper, scribble signatures on them, and sorted them into various piles. I gulped. "Uh…is this a bad time?"

"No, dear," she replied. "Okay, maybe a little. Just make it quick, okay?"

"All right. Um…where's Darren?"

She seemed to freeze in place for a second. "He…he went on a top-secret mission of sorts. To stop Pokéxtinction latest weapon, I've heard. That was several hours ago."

"Oooh, I get it. So he's coming back soon, right?"

"Amy…" Asula looked up from her papers with a sad look in her eyes. "It doesn't usually take him that long to complete these missions."

Then her voice broke. "He's dead."

* * *

><p>Things fell apart after that.<p>

I was always nervous about what would happen when that massive Pokéxtinction army would arrive. I worried that we'd lose a lot of lives on our side, or maybe some Pokéxtinction members would slip in and capture or even kill us.

But I never expected that, right before the army came, we'd get hit with a wide-area ray gun that turned us all back into humans.

Very few of the trainees were prepared to fight without their Pokémon powers, except maybe the Fighting-types. But even they couldn't hold off the waves of Pokéxtinction solders from breaking into the base.

We ran as fast as we could away from them. Some stayed to fight. Jane, Sammy, and I were backed up against a wall when we realized that this was the place where the Pokéxtinction soldiers blasted in.

"Amy! Just go! Save yourself!" shouted Jane.

I proceeded to dash for it and just made it through when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, Jane jumping in the way of an electrified capture net that was aiming for me. "JANE!"

"Amy, don't worry about us! I'll hold them off! Now just GO!" shouted Sammy.

And I followed her advice. I ran for it, not daring to look behind me. I ran through the forest, somehow managing to avoid the battle that was blazing all around me. Even now, I'm not sure how I did it. All I know was that I was motivated by pure adrenaline. Plus, all those Running classes had finally paid off.

I ran as far away from that battle as I could and waited for it to be over. To pass the time, I walked around and stumbled across a few neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that I found to be surprisingly familiar…

Yes. I remembered from before. My cousins' house was there!

I made a mental note of the place and walked back to the base, being sure to keep myself well hidden. I was surprised to see that no one was around. Even when I reached the entrance, as well as the hole they burst through the ground to get in, it seemed like no one was there. I debated about whether or not to go back in…

KA-BLOOIE!

An explosion rocked the ground like an earthquake, sending orange-hot air blazing through the openings to the base. I couldn't believe it. Pokéxtinction placed bombs all over the base! Even with the wildly shaking ground, I knew I had to get out of there right away. I ran as fast as I could, away from the increasing explosions, and didn't stop until I slammed right into the door of my cousins' house.

My aunt opened the door. "Amy? What are you doing here? What's wrong?"

I quickly thought of the best excuse I could. "College trip. Comic convention here. Got lost. Had to look your name up in the directory and find you here," I gasped. I usually wasn't very good at lying, but at least it was a half-truth. I'd been to New York City for a field trip in 12th grade, heard about comic conventions that I wanted to go to here, and knew that some college students liked to take long trips like these on the weekends.

Luckily, they gave me a room for the night while they prepared to take me back and call my mom and dad to let them know I was okay. Uh-oh…

They might figure out that my clone was still at college, no doubt working hard on more Pokémon comics. And then they would wonder what I'm doing here. What could I do…?

I guessed all I could do was grab a backpack and stuff it with as much food and water as I could. No money, as who knew how long it would be until this humanization beam wore off and I turned back into a Jigglypuff?

Then I exited through the back door just as my aunt came into the kitchen, no doubt about to ask me who I really was.

* * *

><p>My transformation wore off within a day. I figured that maybe there were more Pokéuman bases out there that hadn't been attacked yet, and maybe I could warn them. But this backpack was heavy, and who knew if I would even make it in time? I learned the names of many of the bases and their general locations, but I didn't know their actual locations. Maybe I would never find them. Maybe I would never get help.<p>

I wandered around for days. No…weeks. The food and water supply was running out. Especially the water supply. It might have made the backpack lighter…but still, I couldn't help but feel as if I was running out of time.

And I still couldn't find any other Pokéuman bases. Maybe I was too late already.

It wasn't fair. When they blew up the Long Island base, they also blew up all the art I ever made during my time there. Why did this keep happening to me? First, my art in the real world, now this. And right when I was finally beginning to accept my new life…

I placed the backpack inside a crevice in the forest's ground, unzipped the bag, and crawled inside it, zipping it back almost all the way. The cold air made me shiver, but I eventually fell asleep.

I had been doing that for the past few weeks with no sign of it coming to an end.

* * *

><p>My water and food supply was dangerously close to its end when the inevitable happened.<p>

Agents of Pokéxtinction had somehow managed to find me. They drove all-terrain vehicles deep into the forest and parked all around me. I ran for it, swinging my backpack to drive them off, but it was no use. They were so much taller, and quickly caught up to me.

They shot a capture net at me, but I managed to ward it off with my backpack. Unfortunately, the backpack got caught up in it, and I was left defenseless.

It was at that point that I wished I paid a bit more attention during Battle Class. The only moves I knew were Pound and Defense Curl, neither of which was likely to help me here. The men in black and white armor surrounded me and aimed their capture nets at me all at the same time. I could only use Defense Curl, but even that couldn't reduce the pain as all the capture nets electrocuted me at once.

* * *

><p>I woke up to blinding white flourescent lights shining in my eyes. My head felt funny. Then I realized that I was tied to a table with cold, steel clamps!<p>

Amazing how they could do this to a Jigglypuff, but apparently, they could. For a second, I thought I might have actually been taken to an alien spaceship or something, but then I analyzed all the technology in the room, and even the walls. Nope, nothing new or hi-tech here. Just bland whitewashed walls with bland computers and a bland door with a doorknob...that suddenly swung open. A person wearing a biohazard suit came in the room.

There was no doubt I was in a Pokextinction Base.

"Who are you?" I shouted. "What are you doing to me?"

To my surprise, the person ran up to me and whispered, "Hey, not so loud! I'm here to help!"

I knew that voice. It was a voice I haven't heard for the longest time. My jaw dropped. "...Dad?"

"Good to see you again, Amy. The real you."

My brain still couldn't respond. "But-buh-how-when-?"

"Long story. Can't talk now. Just trust me on this one. If this works, we can make it so it all never happened." He then walked behind me, and I apparently found that the "table" I was tied to was actually a moveable cart. He pushed me out the room, being sure to check for other Pokextinction employees before going down the hall.

We went down several halls without being seen. Then he pushed me into a room with a capsule-like device in the center. Blue wires were attached all over, and the capsule itself was made of glass with an open door. The glass itself seemed to radiate with blue energy.

My dad locked the door and pushed me up to the control module. "Now listen, Amy. This is Pokextinction's absolute most secret piece of technology that they just finished. It lets you travel to the past and influence the course of history. I was against the idea, but Mr. X wanted a way to ensure his victory against the Pokéumans if all else failed. In fact, I heard he would actually use it to stop the Pokéumans from ever existing by going back to his accident 100 years ago."

I stared at the now-frightening machine, terrified. "So you want me to blow it up, right?"

"No. I want YOU to use it," he explained.

I was shocked. "WHAT?"

"Look, Pokéxtinction forced me and your mom to join them. They suspected you would transform, and wanted us to be there when it happened. But apparently, we weren't. So as punishment, the made us work on this device. But I don't want it to be used for bad things. I want you to use it to stop this thing from ever being made, and ideally, prevent Pokéxtinction from ever finding us."

"But Dad, why don't you use it?"

"Because if I do, they'll know I'm in it, and they can stop it immediately. Since they don't have your DNA signature in their database yet, they won't know it was you." I couldn't tell if he smiled behind that huge dark visor, but I imagined he did. "Don't worry. I heard about what happened, and how you were the only Pokéuman left that wasn't captured. There's really no choice at this point. I trust you to do the right thing."

He unlocked the restraints and placed me in the middle of the machine. Then he walked to the control panel, pressed a few buttons on it, and the glass opening shut. Bright blue light began to fill the glass and surround me.

Suddenly, my mind began to expand. It felt like that just by willing it, I could go anywhere I want in the past. Not only that, but I could place a time-stop barrier over any area I wanted, allowing a Pokéuman to tranform a lot sooner than usual. But time would be frozen for them in the meantime, and when it was over, the world would change around them. This was a scary power. If Mr. X had it, he could...it was too horrible to imagine.

But I knew what to do now.

I floated in the air and began to open a time portal to ten years in the past. It could just be that I wanted to see my younger self again, but it was more important than that. Not only would I make her a Jigglypuff for her 10th birthday, which I was sure she would appreciate more than I ever did, but by changing my history like so, I would cease to exist. Tough, but all my dreams up to this point were for nothing. Besides, if I disappeared, this power would disappear with me, and no one—especially not Mr. X—would ever have to abuse this power again. Too bad Dialga wasn't here to advise me on this, but hey, all the Legendaries were stuck in that alternate dimension to never return. I was on my own here.

"Love you, Dad. Goodbye..." I felt like I could cry. The first time in almost a year that I saw my dad again, and now I would never see him again.

"I know you'll do good, Amy..."

I flew through a blue void of outer space, stars whizzing by me. I never thought I would know what it was like to travel through time for real like in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, but apparently, this was the real deal.

I arrived, floating right above my house, and saw my nine-year-old self jumping up and down in anticipation of the next day. It WOULD be an awesome birthday present to become a Jigglypuff, huh? But to do that...

I figured that there was no turning back now. I didn't want to use this power any more than necessary. The sooner I nullified my existence, the more that history would be unaffected for the worse. I flew around the neighborhood, creating a time-stop barrier that would freeze the whole area in place for ten years.

During the spell, I thought hard. The world would go from Game Boy Colors to Nintendo 3DSs, from Nintendo 64s to Wiis. And everything else would change, too. How would they react to such sudden changes in the world? How would I react? Would they want an explanation for all of this? How would history change because of this?

But…

This was all for the sake of my past self, of Darren, whom I wished I only got to know better, and of all the Pokéumans in the world. It was all for a better future—a future in which people and Pokémon could one day live together in peace.

My ten-year-old self might have to go through stuff I never went through myself. Maybe Patch and Connie might try to beat her up. Maybe she wouldn't be able to stand the PRT that well. Maybe she wouldn't even make it in time to save Darren. There was no guarantee that things would be able to turn out the way I wanted them to, or even if her personality wouldn't be permanently altered by the end.

But if I didn't do this, everything would be worse for everyone. My life had already been crushed twice. If it could be crushed a third time in order to make things better for everyone, there was only one choice.

I completed the time-stop barrier and activated it. As soon as it happened, a flurry of yellow lights enveloped my vision, and I felt myself dissolving into the vast recesses of time. But I didn't mind. My life might have been for nothing in terms of being a manga artist, but at the very least, I would do something that would hopefully be for the better.

That was the last thing I ever saw.

**To be continued…**


	12. I'll Always Be There For You

**Chapter 12: I'll Always Be There For You**

"…Amy!"

…

"Amy!"

…

…

"AMY!"

Uuugh…I remembered the feeling. I hadn't felt this way since Patch and Connie landed me in the hospital. Twice. Wait. Was I in the hospital again?

I forced my eyes to open, and saw that, indeed, I was in it, complete with bright florescent ceiling lights, a packet with a string attached to my arm that they called an IV unit, and Darren the familiar Golurk.

Darren?

He was alive!

I wanted to say something, but all that came out was a cough.

"My gosh, Amy…don't do that to me again…!" he choked.

I cleared my throat and replied, "That's what I…was going to say…"

Then an Audino nurse came up and explained, "See, Darren? I told you she'd be all right! No mutations or anything whatsoever. It's you we were worried about. You lost so much of your internal energy, we were afraid that your soul would never be normal again."

Darren shot back, "It could have been a lot worse! She could have died instantly!"

"D—don't worry! At least she repaired your seal before it got any worse for both of you." The Audino stepped back and turned to leave. "Anyway, you're both alive, and you got out of it okay."

I sat up and saw that I was a Jigglypuff again. Good. Looked like the nasty side effects of those crystals had worn off by now. But the thought reminded me of something…

"Darren…I just had the weirdest dream."

He sat down and crossed his arms over the bed, listening intently. "What is it?"

I took a deep breath to give myself time to remember everything that happened while I was out. "It feels like I should have turned into a Jigglypuff right before my 20th birthday, not my 10th. And apparently, it felt like that happened once. But I never joined the PRT then. You died because I wasn't there to help you. And…the whole base was destroyed, and Pokéxtinction had captured everyone around the world, and I was the only one left. Then my dad came and took me to this super-secret device that apparently gave me time-travel powers. And I…I placed a time-stop barrier over my neighborhood that made ten years go by without anyone noticing." I paused to catch my breath. "Darren…I think that's why Fox Kids disappeared, why there was suddenly three new generations of Pokémon, and why there are 3DSs and stuff! I know it was just a dream, but…it felt so real! And I NEVER remember my dreams!"

"Shh, calm down, it's okay," he said. "Come to think of it, I think I smashed a suspicious-looking machine before they caught me with that stupid device. It wouldn't happen to be a cylinder-shaped glass container with a bunch of blue wires coming out of it that was glowing in a creepy blue light, would it?"

I gasped. "That's it. That's the one I went through!"

"So maybe it really did happen, and only now, maybe she sent you that dream before she disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"Of course. It's the basic law of time travel. If you change even the slightest bit of what happens to you in the past, you create an alternate reality, and you disappear." He then narrowed his eyes, thinking hard. "So it was all to save me…"

I gazed down, realizing the significance of it all. "I didn't even know her, but now…I feel like I miss her already. But in a way, I'm glad she did what she did. After all…you're my best friend, and everything would be worse if they killed you."

Darren hugged me. "I'm just glad they didn't kill YOU."

After he let me go, I asked, "So what happened while I was asleep?"

"Well, after you got that seal back on me, you fainted. I was worried that you'd died, so I brought you over here as fast as I could. I also managed to grab some of those crystals in case it might've helped them to learn how this happened, and when you would change back. Turns out that it only lasts a day. At least, that's what Mr. Paion says. He's researching more about them right now."

As if on cue, the Grumpig in the white lab coat with safety goggles over his head came into the doorway of the hospital room. "Darren! I just found something important about them! Come quickly." Then he noticed me. "Oh, Amy! Good to see you're okay. Anyway, if you can, you should come see this, too!"

Darren turned to me. "Think you're okay now?"

"I think I am. Let's go."

I only knew the way to Mr. Paion's science classroom all too well, but even so, Darren followed him all the way there, allowing me to sit next to his left shoulder. On the table in the front of the room were the pink crystals, and there were humanizing rings scattered all around it. One of the rings had five shards of the crystals attached to its perimeter.

"Okay…you know how humanizing rings allow you to temporarily become a human, but you can't stay as one for too long, or else you're at risk for mutations?"

Darren nodded.

"Well, these crystals contain a special enzyme that stabilizes DNA, making the risk for mutations much, much lower. I got curious, and decided to see what would happen if I combined the crystals with humanizing rings. And according to my analysis here…" He pulled up a PowerPoint slide on his computer and brought it up on the whiteboard. "If they were combined and used on someone, their DNA structure would become so stable that theoretically, they could remain a human their whole life. Now, my only problem is that I need someone to test this on…"

"Hmm…" Darren thought for a moment. "A lot of us here are used to being Pokémon, and since we're already replaced by our clones in the real world, it wouldn't be easy to go back. Maybe if someone really wanted their old life back…?"

"How about you, Amy?" asked Mr. Paion.

"Huh? Me? Whoa, wait…" I didn't expect things to happen so fast. Me? Become a human permanently? Once upon a time, I might have considered it, but Jigglypuff was my most favorite Pokémon of all time, and I was already way used to being one. Besides, I wanted to keep my attacks: Defense Curl, Rollout, Hyper Voice, and Thunderbolt. They helped keep me out of trouble all this time. I wasn't sure if I was ready to give all that up.

Darren chuckled. "I get it. You probably like being a Jigglypuff, but hate the battling aspects, right?"

My eyes widened. "Yeah! That's it! Why didn't I think of that before…?"

"Amy, I observe things. It got pretty obvious after a while."

Obvious to him, maybe. But it never was to me. I felt jealous of him. How come he could figure out these things about me even before I could? All I remembered was feeling really terrified when it came to dangerous things, but no one else seemed to mind. I thought being terrified was wrong, but it still didn't stop those feelings from happening. If only I could articulate my feelings as well as he could…

"Hey…don't get so down. It takes time and effort to see these things. Don't worry. The older you get, the easier it will be. Just wait and see."

I smiled. "Thanks, Darren…"

Mr. Paion sighed. "Darren's absolutely right, Amy. Take it from me. Now, if only I could get someone to test these out…"

Suddenly, it came to my head like lightning. "Patch and Connie!" I shouted.

"Huh? What about them?" asked Mr. Paion.

"They've wanted to turn back into humans for a long time now. Where are they…? Are they still in detention…?"

Darren turned to leave through the door. "Let's go get them."

We flew through the hallways headed for the dungeon area, but then remembered that we needed Asula's permission to get in. We halted and knocked on the door to her office.

"Come in."

We opened the door and saw her at the desk yet again, sorting through loads of paperwork. But I had one more question to ask.

"Miss Asula?"

"Yes?"

"Where's my mom and dad and my clone? Are they still here?"

"Actually, as soon as I received word that the base was destroyed, I sent them home safely with a PRT member." She smiled. "Don't worry. They're all right."

Darren added, "Also, Mr. Paion just discovered what he thinks is a way to permanently become a human again, but we don't want to waste it on someone who doesn't want to. Amy thinks that Patch and Connie might be one of the few here who'd volunteer to test it out. Could we get your permission to get them from detention?"

Asula raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating…This wouldn't have anything to do with that so-called humanizing beam, would it?"

"Actually, it has everything to do with it. I managed to swipe some of those crystals that were powering it. The unbroken ones. I let Mr. Paion study them, just in case…" Darren trailed off, and he looked at me with concern. I knew exactly what he meant.

"Ah, excellent. So that means that they no longer have the ability to power that thing, now, do they?" asked Asula, smiling.

"No they don't, ma'am. Even if they did, Amy smashed the actual gun, and I blew up the base, so it's all good."

"Then I don't see why not, then! They HAVE been among the most difficult students to rehabilitate. Anyway, follow me." Asula slithered from around her desk and headed out the door.

She led us through the iron door and past the Walrein guard patrolling the hallway of the dungeon. I heard how bullies were often sent to "detention", but I never knew that "detention" was basically this dungeon. But then again, the tight quarters of the cells were perfect places for Asula to use Surf repeatedly on them.

She knocked on a door on the right side of the hall, several cells after and the opposite side of the one me and my clone were in. "Patch! Connie! Wake up," she demanded. "You have guests."

Asula unlocked the door and swung it open just as the Machamp and Weezing inside were sitting up.

"Fuzzb—I—I mean, Amy?" Patch rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

"What's Darren doing here…?" asked Connie.

Darren stepped forward and explained, "We swiped some crystals that were powering Pokéxtinction secret weapon and gave them to Mr. Paion to study. Turns out that if he combines them with a humanizing ring, it's possible that you guys can turn back into humans permanently. What do you say? Want to come with us to try it out?"

Patch's jaw looked as if it would drop to the floor. "No way…!"

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Connie gasped.

"No, this is serious. Come on!" I said.

They followed us out of the cell, with Asula close behind, monitoring them closely. We made our way out of the dungeon area through the halls and all the way back to Mr. Paion's room.

"Mr. Paion! We brought them."

He turned to see us. "Ah! Very good."

Connie floated up to the Grumpig and asked, "So where is it?"

Mr. Paion held up the ring laced with pink crystals. "Here. Now let me ask you this. Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? Once you turn into a human, there's no going back."

Connie scoffed. "Well, no duh. It's what I've been waiting for the past several years. Now bring it on!"

Mr. Paion stumbled back a bit. Clearly, he never met someone like Connie. "Okay, now let me start…"

He placed the ring over her bigger head, locked the crystals in place, and pressed the button on the ring to activate it. The transformation took a lot slower than usual, and oddly enough, a blinding white light emitted from the crystals and the ring, forcing us to shield our eyes.

When the light cleared, there was a 21-year-old girl with long black hair, blue jeans, and a black jacket standing there in shock and awe. She wore huge gold earrings and red lipstick. As far as I could tell, I could see why she hated being a Weezing so much.

"Please tell me I'm not dreaming, please tell me I'm not dreaming, please tell me I'm not dreaming…"

Patch playfully punched her in the arm. "Feel that?"

"…Oh my gosh, I'm not dreaming!"

It was so hard to believe that these were the same people who so readily beat me up when I first got here. They've really come a long way. All this time, I thought I'd have to live in fear of people like them…and now, they were finally free…

Patch had a harder time deciding whether or not he wanted to become a human too. There was only one crystal-lined ring left, and he even offered it to me, but I declined, saying that he should have it instead. He eventually decided that maybe Connie needed a friend, and used it on himself, too.

Darren and I flew the two of them back to the place where they used to live. It wouldn't be easy for them to go back to society, especially with Patch's clone running around and Connie presumed dead, but they reassured us that they would take every measure to make it happen. We told them that if all else failed, they could always go back to the base. But they didn't think they'd need to. But still…Darren said it was the very first time in Pokéumans history when something like that happened. He planned on researching where Pokéxtinction got those crystals from, or if they made it themselves, how.

When we flew back, Commander Cuczcoff was there, waiting for us as we went inside.

"Amy! We've been looking all over for you!"

I was surprised. "Wait. What? What did I do?"

The Escavalier laughed. "Don't you know? You—actually, it's better if I tell everyone. Follow me."

Completely confused, Darren and I followed him all the way…to the PRT's small auditorium-like room. All the PRT members were there, sitting in the seats in front of the stage, including Steve, Spike, and Sam. I was surprised that they were released from detention already. Everyone was excitedly chatting amongst themselves, and I wondered whether or not they heard anything about what happened the past few days.

He floated all the way up to the stage, but I stopped right at the foot of it, wondering if I should go up there or find a seat instead.

"Come on, you two!"

I hurriedly followed after him. Darren stood behind both of us. Apparently, he didn't seem to like the spotlight as much.

Commander Cuczcoff tested the microphone before announcing, "Atten-SHUN!"

That got them all to shut up instantly.

"Ahem. For those of you who don't know, yesterday, we captured two agents of Pokéxtinction and learned the location of a secret weapon, which, if activated, would have turned us all into humans right as Pokéxtinction's army would have arrived, thus ensuring our defeat. Darren bravely volunteered to smash the weapon and their base for us, but it was all a trap. They apparently needed his internal energy to power the weapon in the first place, and if they succeeded in doing so, he would not be here with us today. But…!"

He paused for dramatic effect.

"Right after her performance in our base's first-ever musical, Amy the Jigglypuff ran over there on her own, helped rescue Darren from Pokextinction, AND took out their secret weapon for us! And not only that…" He brought up a PowerPoint slide and projected it onto the white screen behind us. It was a chart featuring all of my missions, from my very first one to…

"Based on what I've been keeping track of her records, that heroic act counts as her 301st mission, making her…" He took my badge and ran it through the upgrade device in the center of the stage. "An Honorary Elite."

My jaw dropped in disbelief. I had completely lost count of how many missions I'd done. "No way!" I shouted.

"Wait, so I was YOUR Rescue Number 301?" exclaimed Darren in disbelief. Or maybe he was joking. I wouldn't know.

The commander laughed. "You sure were. Kind of funny how things came full circle, huh?" He cleared his throat to get some of the other audience members to stop laughing. "So anyway, as a reward, Amy gets to stay in Room 10, next to Darren the Golurk and Reggie the Grovyle."

Apparently, Reggie was sitting in the front row. He nodded at me.

Finally, the commander turned to me and said, "Welcome to the best of the best, Amy."

The entire crowd cheered wildly. Even Steve, Spike, and Sam, to my surprise. I thought that, surely, those guys would hate me more than ever. But it looked like that because I done something extremely important, they didn't mind that much anymore.

After the celebration, in which I got to sign a lot of autographs, Reggie and Darren took me back to Room 301 to tell Eric, Cole, and Lily the news that I would be moving out.

"YEAH! Good job, Amy!" shouted Cole.

"I'll miss you…" Lily sniffed. "But I hope you like it!"

Darren carried my laptop, drawings, art supplies, and stacks of books for me, and flew us to Room 10. I opened the door first and took in the view of the room in awe.

It was much like Darren's room, complete with red crystal walls, a single bed, TV, and several tables. It even had what I suspected was a secret exit to the outside. Did Reggie, Darren, or anyone know about it? I wasn't sure.

Didn't matter. As soon as we were done unloading everything into the room, Reggie said, "You know, Amy, I've been hearing that everyone wants an encore performance before they all have to fight Pokéxtinction."

I smiled. "I think we can handle that."

That night, I tested out the back wall to see if there was a secret passage—and as it turned out, there was. Oddly enough, it connected with Darren's secret passage. I contemplated leaving by myself as usual, but then I remembered that I didn't need to keep this a secret from him anymore. So I knocked on the back passage to Darren's room and asked if he could fly me to my clone's house, just to see if she was okay.

And I told her everything that happened. Even the day of the planned encore performance.

* * *

><p>It was weird how it all just happened like that. I originally planned to run away and live with my clone, but then all that happened, and suddenly, I became an Honorary Elite with my own room. Very few Pokeumans—very few PRT members—ever got that privilege. It felt wrong to suddenly throw that away.<p>

I also learned that all I was missing was a reason to fight. And my reason ended up being a very powerful one—to keep Darren from dying at all costs. Who knew it took me so long to figure that out?

It was the middle of the week when we had our encore performance in the evening, and luckily, I was able to get permission from Asula to have my clone and family come over to watch me perform. All the trainees for the great big army to fight Pokéxtinction were there as usual, but this time, Darren was here too.

Actually, funny story. During the musical, when it came time for the Golurk puppet to be brought on stage, Darren flew out of the audience, kicked the puppet aside, and started doing the robot along to the music. The voice actor for the Golurk puppet was understandably a bit flustered at first (we were all surprised to some degree), but everyone in the audience was laughing so hard that we all just went with it. Whenever the voice actor would perform his lines, Darren would make up random gestures to go with it, which was not always accurate. It only increased the amount of comedy, though.

That night, we flew my family back to my house. But I had a few last things to say. I bounced back into my old room and sat down on my bed.

"Hey, Amy…? Sorry that I have to break my promise and all that, but…everyone needs me. Even Darren needs me. I can't leave them all to live with you. I'm sorry."

My clone thought for a bit, then smiled. "No. It's okay."

My eyes widened. "Huh?"

"I saw how much fun you were having with everyone. They probably want you to do musicals for them again and again from now on. It wouldn't be fair if you were stuck here…would it?"

"No…no, I guess not."

"Just do what you have to do, Jigglypuff. Or…can I call you Amy?"

I smiled. "Whichever you want."

She then picked me up and held me out the window for Darren. "Hey, Darren? Look after her, okay?"

"Will do. See you soon," he replied.

We flew back to the base, but before we went back in through the secret entrance, Darren said, "Hang on. The sky looks great tonight, and that's saying something, considering we're near New York City."

As we sat down, I suggested, "Maybe it's National Turn-Off-the-Lights day?"

"Yeah, like that'll ever happen." He laughed. Then he got serious. "You know…I used to think it was really unfair that you transformed when you did. If only I got to rescue you a lot earlier, maybe I wouldn't have had so many problems dealing with people here…and maybe I would've gotten to Honorary Elite a lot sooner. But now…it looks like it's better late than never. Thanks for saving my life."

"I had to do that, Darren. I didn't have a choice." I sighed. "But you know…I'm glad I could do what she wanted. I'm glad we could smash that weapon and the time machine. It's kind of funny, though. You got to be an Honorary Elite just by rescuing me, and I got to be one by saving your life."

"Just like the commander said…everything's come full circle. I guess it's only fair."

As we gazed at the stars, I could indeed see that there were many more than I ever seen in my life. "I…I have to thank you…for everything. I know it's not fair that you were always there for me, but I couldn't be there for you…"

"No, no, that was beyond any of our control. But it's always the little ones like you who are hardest hit. If you ask me, I think it couldn't be fairer." He sighed. "You know, when we rescue people, we hardly see them much anymore. They get their class schedules, make friends, live their lives at the base…sometimes, they say hi to us when we pass them, but most of the time, they forget about us. And we forget about them, because we're always too busy focusing on how to deal with the next one. But you…you're different, and not just because you're the youngest member to join the PRT or that you got to Honorary Elite in the least amount of time. You're the first one who actually tried to care about everyone you rescued."

"Each and every one of them," I replied, not just thinking about Lily.

"I'm glad you turned out to be more that just my Rescue Number 301. I always wanted a little sister like you."

"Hey, you did a lot more for me! You know…like a big brother. But just know…that I'll always be there for you."

He nodded. "…Me too."

And it was true. The coming final confrontation with Pokéxtinction was coming up fast. Ordinarily, I'd be terrified, but that was only because I never had a good reason to fight. Now I did. If Darren decided that he would join our army…I would be right there with him, helping him out to the very end…fighting for a world where Pokémon and people could finally live together in peace at last.

**The End!**

**Author's Note: **This is the official end of the story for now. If it turns out that I have a major role to play in the main story of Brandon the Lucario, though, I'll add chapters showing how that goes.


End file.
